Silent Soldier
by MoonBunny789
Summary: Hi I'm Tsukino Usagi, I'm 14, a bit of a crybaby, and also I'm mute. I was in an accident that damaged my vocal chords when I was younger but no big deal, right? I can totally still be a Sailor Senshi
1. Chapter 1

Hey I've had this idea for a while now. I'm fine leaving it like this but I do have more planned for it if it gets positive feedback

Disclaimer, don't own sailor moon.

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"Vocal Speech"

'Sign Language'

" _Sailor Moon speech"_

My name is Tsukino Usagi, I'm fourteen years old and a bit of a crybaby. I'm also mute. When I was ten an accident took my voice from me but it's wasn't the end of the world. I'm alive and I have people who love me so I'm still happy. And just because I can't speak doesn't mean I can't communicate; my family and my best friend learned how to sign with me after the accident.

"Usagi!" My mother opened my bedroom door, "You're going to be late for school!"

I looked at my alarm clock, she was right of course, if I didn't leave in the next few minutes I would never make it in time. 'Thanks, Mama.' I sign as I rush to get out the door. I checked my ribbon, grabbed some toast and left.

Of course, I still didn't make it on time. On the way I was distracted by some kids bullying a cat. I clapped loudly behind them to get their attention then shooed them away. I knelt to look at the cat, seeing a bandage on its head. Poor kitty, children can be so cruel, I think to myself as I pull the bandage off. As the cat jumps away I catch sight of a crescent… scar? I stare at the cat for another moment, hand automatically being drawn to the ribbon on my throat, then I hear a bell ring and realize that I wasted too many precious minutes with the cat and was once again late to school.

I apologize to my teacher, Ms. Haruna, as I enter the class. I grab my personal chalkboard and take a seat next to my best friend Naru. We smile at each other as class begins.

Later at lunch Naru says that her mother's jewelry store is having a sale and that we should go. Even if it's on sale I don't think I would be able to afford anything there but I agree anyway. If nothing else I can try some of it on and we can hang out together.

After school, as we walk toward her shop, I examine the graded test we received in class. It was a poor grade, I could have done better. Oh well, can't change the past. I throw the test paper at a nearby trashcan. And watch in horror as it hits someone in the face. I run up to them and start bowing in apology, I even sign sorry a few times, but as I've learned it can be hard to communicate properly with a stranger. As I feared, the man did not notice my apology. Or possibly he didn't care.

He sneered at me, "Is this yours? I didn't know it was possible to score that low on a test. Your family must be so proud."

I flushed in anger, for some reason unable to just brush off his comment, and sign back in a flurry of angry gestures, 'You jerk! I apologized! What gives you the right to ridicule me that way? My test score is none of your business you…BUTT-FACE!'

There is a pause. He blinks at me, several emotions passing over his face before he settles on a teasing one. "Butt face? That's not very nice," he smiles, 'bun head.' I gape at him. He knows sign? I miscalculated, confronting him was a mistake, abort, abo-

He hands my test to me and walks away laughing, I manage to snap out of my shock.

"Usagi! Are you ok?" Naru rushed to her. I nodded and we walked away, never noticing the cat following behind.

Entering Naru's store, Osa-P, was chaos. There were way too many people, I had to grab Naru's sleeve to keep from getting separated. We started browsing. Despite my earlier thoughts, I actually could afford some of these prices. Maybe that was why the crowd was so big. I still doubt I'll buy anything…

Naru's mom greeted us as we were looking at a necklace display. "Naru! Are you and your friend interested in these necklaces?" She turned to address me, "You could use some real jewelry instead of those ribbons on your neck." My smile dropped.

"Mom!" Naru looked horrified, "You know Usagi wears that for a reason!" She lowered her voice to a scandalized whisper, "Remember, her scars?" Understanding flashed on her mother's face and she quickly apologized and excused herself, leaving to tend to other customers.

That was… weird. Naru's mom was talking like she didn't even know me, she didn't remember my condition and she didn't even say my name. I've known Naru for years, that's just strange.

"I'm sorry Usagi, I don't know why she said that." Naru said to me, looking slightly distressed.

'It's ok, really, but I think I'm going to go home now.' She signed to her friend. 'I'll see you tomorrow though.'

As I walked home I couldn't help but touch the ribbons on my neck. I rubbed the spot that I knew my scars were, hidden underneath.

I sighed as I reached my house, mom won't like the grade I got. I walked through the front door. I couldn't see my mom anywhere so I knocked on the wall to let her hear that I was home.

"Usagi, welcome home!" She walked out from the kitchen, "How was your day? I heard you had a test, how did you do?" She smiled at me. I frowned and handed her the test. Before she could look at it I already started signing, 'I'm sorry, I'll do better next time.' She looked at it and then back at me and simply sighed. "Alright then, why don't you go start your homework and I'll come get you when dinner is ready," She kissed my forehead, I nodded, and accepted the dismissal to go up to my room.

I did start my homework. I'm not always the best student but I could be worse. I was terrible when I was younger but after the accident I had to work hard to catch up and ever since I've been a bit better about at least trying to do my schoolwork.

Several minutes passed before I was interrupted by a voice at my window.

"Tsukino Usagi, I've been looking for you," a cat said. What? Vaguely, I recognized it as the cat from this morning but I was more focused on the talking aspect at the moment. "Thank you for helping me this morning, those bandages inhibited my speech and mental functions. I'm glad we've met. I was getting worried about what I would do if I never found you."

'Am I dreaming?' I sign to the cat. While part of me is hoping this is a dream I have an ominous gut feeling it isn't. Something deep inside me is telling me to listen. The main reason I asked was to see if the cat could understand.

"Usagi? Why do you communicate with your hands?" Huh I guess not then. It was worth a shot, if it can speak then it isn't unthinkable that it would understand sign language as well but I guess not.

I removed the ribbon wrapped around my neck, letting the large mass of scars on my throat be seen. I then tried simple gestures to get the cat to understand me. I touched my throat, opening my mouth as I gestured forward, miming speech, and then formed an 'x' with my hands.

Understanding seemed to flash through the cat's eyes. "I thought that might have been the reason but I had hoped that I would be wrong. While this complicates things slightly I'm sure it will work out in the end. Especially once we find the princess, she will most likely be able to heal you." Ok, I'm confused again. I grabbed a piece of paper to communicate with.

"Complicate what? Find who? Explain please," I had written.

Luna read it and nodded, "I suppose we can spare some time for a brief summary. Basically, you are the reincarnation of a magical warrior from a kingdom long gone. A long time ago there was a kingdom on the moon, and the other planets as well, and this kingdom was full of peace, magic and prosperity and spread across all the planets of this star system. But a great evil destroyed the kingdom. The queen, using the magic of the Silver Crystal, sealed it away, along with sending the souls of her daughter and the Sailor Senshi ahead to be reborn in the future. You are Sailor Moon, leader of the Sailor Senshi. The evil from before is breaking its binds and sending monsters, Youma, into this world. It is your job to stop those monsters and to help find and protect the princess, for she is now the only one capable of using the magic that can defeat the Dark Kingdom. The crystal the queen used to defeat them can only be used by the royal lunarians and the princess is the only royal left now." She stopped, looking for my reaction now.

"You realize that sounds crazy, right?" I wrote, despite that, though, there was a sense of rightness to her words in my mind.

"Maybe you require proof then." And a beautiful brooch appeared in front of her. "This will allow you to transform into Sailor Moon."

"But why me? I won't be a very good leader when I can't even speak," I wrote.

"You wouldn't be the first disabled Soldier, and magic makes a great many things easier. There were mute lunarians too, in the odd cases that magic couldn't just heal them, magic let them continue to communicate through other means. The most common being simply projecting their thoughts, their inner voices, outward. This was usually achieved through slightly psychic jewelry, something that the Senshi Uniform is more than capable of. While transformed you will most definitely be able to communicate, I only wish I had more relics from the Silver Millennium, then I could help you out of uniform as well. Oh, the Silver Millennium was the name of the peaceful kingdom formed by all the planets." She was rambling at the end, having been caught up in memories and a genuine desire to help me. I was actually a little touched, or I would be if I wasn't still trying to process everything she said.

"I'll be able to speak?" I wrote eventually. She smiled at me and nodded at the brooch still floating between us.

"Try for yourself. You simply need to say Moon Prism Power to activate it and your magic will do the rest."

"Say?" She realized her mistake.

"I'm sorry, I believe just thinking it while focusing completely on those words will work for you. Silent transformations usually require quite some experience from the Senshi but we'll make do. Go ahead and try now." She smiled again. I grabbed the brooch in front of me. I felt something, its magic maybe, pulse through me from its spot in my hands.

' _MOON PRISM POWER'_ I could feel the magic flooding through me the words coming to me with ease, _'MAKE UP!'_ There was a spike in the magic and I was quickly surrounded by warmth, light, and ribbons, and then I was standing in a new outfit, my uniform apparently, and I could still feel the magic thrumming through my veins.

" _Panic. This is too overwhelming. Am I dreaming? This can't be real. THAT WAS AMAZING! This is too good to be true. That felt so right! She's going to say I'm to broken. She'll take it back, I know it! This can't be real! Magic isn't real! But it is and it happened! And I love it! My head hurts. WHAT'S HAPPENING?"_ The room filled with sound. Voices echoing my thoughts overlapping chaotically.

"USAGI! You are projecting! You have to focus; force your magic to only say what you want it to." Luna's voice cut through the noise. The sound of my mind quieted as I calmed down. I blinked and reorganized my thoughts. I tried to do as she said and project what I wanted to say.

" _Like this?"_ my eyes widened, " _was that my voice?"_ My lips didn't move but the thought was mine. I didn't quite recognize the voice; the last time I had spoken I was ten, and it sounded slightly different to my usual inner voice. It almost sounded generic, like a bland imitation of what a teenage girl should sound like. _"Is this what my voice would sound like if I had one? Probably not."_ Oops, I hadn't meant for that to me out loud. This is kinda tough. I looked to Luna, she had a proud look in her eyes and then gestured to the mirror. I looked.

The first thing I noticed was that my hair was a few shades lighter than normal. When I looked closer I saw a few strands of silver mixed with the pale blonde. I noticed the mask next, it looked similar to Sailor V's, it was white and seemed to mimic wings. The lenses of them slightly tinted dark. I took it off for now to better look at myself. Then I noticed my neck. The necklace looked similar to my normal ribbon, but a different color. This bright pink ribbon wrapped many times around my neck, covering my scars, before tying in a bow in the back. There was a small charm hanging from the front that seemed to mimic the brooch on my chest. The brooch which had settled itself in the center of a large pink bow on my chest. The main part of the uniform seemed to mimic my school uniform except the skirt was shorter, the bows pink, and I was now wearing gloves and pink heeled boots. I looked back to my face. There was a gold tiara on my forehead with a pink gem in its center. Above that were feathered pins in my hair and two gems on my buns.

" _Luna, this is amazing!"_ The gems on my buns glowed a soft gold as I 'spoke' and the sound of my 'voice' seemed to be coming from them.

Luna nodded in approval, "Those gems seemed to have been there for some sound based attack already, so they worked perfectly as a conduit for the voice magic." I looked back over at her "Now, it might take some time to get used to the magic translating your thoughts. Getting the magic to know the difference between thoughts you want spoken and thoughts you want to keep private might be difficult at first but practice will help."

Suddenly the goggles lit up, an image showing on the lenses, and I could hear a faint voice from my crescent shaped earrings. - _Help me!-_ that voice sounded familiar!

I looked at the goggles, _"Naru!"_ I gasped, the goggles showed Naru being strangled by her mother. Except, as I watched Naru's mother changed shape into a more monsterish form. I showed the goggles to Luna, _"What's going on?"_

"The Dark Kingdom!" she exclaimed, "Your friends mother has been replaced by a Youma, a monster, you must go save her Sailor Moon!"

I nodded seriously, I had to save Naru, whatever it takes. _"I knew there was something wrong with her! She was acting so strange earlier!"_ I blushed, I hadn't meant to say that. _"Sorry. Let's go save Naru!"_

The act of actually getting to Osa-P was slightly hectic. My panic for Naru warred with my amazement at my new physical abilities. I was jumping over whole buildings with barely any effort. And I was moving faster than I ever had before in my entire life. _"Magic is awesome."_ Didn't mean to say that but its still true. I wish I could run this fast normally, I'd never be late again.

As we got closer, I began to panic more. " _Oh my god Luna, I can't fight! I don't even know how to. And even with this power up how am I supposed to kill an actual MONSTER?!"_

I think Luna gave me a look but she's a cat, so I tried to ignore it. "Calm down, calm down there's a very easy way to beat the monsters. It's a simple spell activated by your tiara. You simply say 'Moon Tiara Boomerang' and throw it at your enemy and it should destroy any Youma."

" _Ok, ok. I can do that. Moon tiara boomerang and then bam its done. Easy-peasy. Just point and shoot… why am I still scared?"_ We had arrived. It was ti _me for me to start my first monster fight. But I'm scared. Naru, you have to save Naru"_ By the end of that thought I was projecting again. God I'm a mess.

Luna gave me a sympathetic look, or the cat equivalent, I think it was sympathy. "It's ok to be nervous. But remember, you can do this! You were born to do this! Just trust your magic!"

I nodded. Kitty pep talk over, I opened the doors. As I did I felt my magic build again, trusting Luna, I let it flow through me and, like with the transformation, I felt my body going back into auto-pilot as magic took control.

" _Stop right there!"_ 'I' yell at the monster. Like with the transformation, the words came with ease, but this time they were slightly more forceful in their exit. Or in other words, magic was speaking for me. Did I lip sync just now? Are my lips moving to match my psychic speech? _"How dare you imitate someone's mother? A mother's love is sacred and evil like you can not ruin it! Also, how dare you use jewelry for evil? This cannot be forgiven! I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"_

My magic speech came with magic poses. It was weird feeling my body move on its own like that, but it finally stopped. Alright, let's try to do this as quickly as possible; say the words, throw the tiara.

" _Moon Tiara Boomerang!"_ As I grabbed the small tiara on my head I felt it change shape. It became a sharp glowing disk of magical destruction. I could feel the magic pulsing through it and back to me and I knew this innocent looking glowing circle could do some major damage. No time to ponder that, point and shoot.

I threw it at the Youma, who had begun charging toward me, and it jumped out of the way. _"Oh come on!"_ I hastily had to dodge an attack from the Youma, claws way too close for comfort. The tiara returned to me. It literally just popped back on my forehead. Well, it did say boomerang, and that does imply it'll come back, but I was not prepared for it poofing back into existence on my face.

This was all very distracting and the monster was still attacking me. I managed to dodge a few more times, trying to get enough space to attack again, before it clawed my arm. Yelling an odd psychic yelp of pain, I leapt backwards, only to trip and fall on my back.

The Youma loomed over me, claws sharpening even more, and was about to strike when a rose shot through its hand.

I look up in the direction the very sharp rose came from and saw a man in a Tuxedo with a mask covering his eyes. I had several thoughts at the same time.

Firstly, dang boy, way to make a girl swoon you dashing prince charming.

Secondly, _"What the whaaaat…?"_ my mind projected as it processed the tuxedo wearing, rose throwing, mysterious stranger who was helping me I think.

Finally, "Now's your chance Sailor Moon!" Mystery boy shouted and it was not necessary I was already there. His distraction, a very distracting distraction, gave me the chance to attack the monster again. _"Moon Tiara Boomerang!"_ It did not miss and the Youma crumbled to dust.

I turned to my knight in tuxedo armor, _"Who are you? Friend or for? Thank you very much for saving me but you aren't going to attack me too now right?"_ I hope he's not evil, he is very cute, and he did save me.

"I am Tuxedo Mask, it seems what I seek is not here, but the trip was not a waste for now I've met you, Sailor Moon. Until we meet again..." he jumped out the window and leapt away from the building. " _Smooth, and also hot and oh crap I think I love him"_

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 **Ok so tell me if you want more. I just had the idea about disabilities and magical girls and wanted to try this out** _  
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 **my plan chapter wise if you all do want more is to do the majority of the episode in one chapter and then in between episodes have some shorter interlude chapters**

 **also usagi had time to have the talk with luna because she didn't stop at the crown arcade and also didn't take a nap, giving them time before the monster strike.**


	2. Chapter 2

**this is the first "intermission chapter" things that happened after the episode is over and stuff. Also more lovely Exposition.**

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Luna and I were walking back to my house. The only reason I was still in my Senshi uniform was so I could pester her with more questions while we walked.

 _"So you said I'm the leader. Leader of who? How many people are we talking about here?"_

"Well, you would be the leader of the Inner Senshi, so that includes Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. And yourself of course." Luna was being very nice about the pestering. I think she's proud of how I handled fighting or something. I killed a monster with minimal complaining, so I earned a few answers, or something like that.

 _"Ignoring the fact that Jupiter is an outer planet in our solar system for the moment, that means I'm in charge of four other Senshi, right? How do I find them? Will I know if I see them?"_

"Yes, four more to go. They will all be females most likely around your age. It's possible you will feel a magic reaction around them to recognize them but for the most part that's my job. I'll find them, and you doing what you did tonight."

 _"Oh, cool. What if they don't want me as their leader? I definitely haven't mastered this thought to voice thing yet and what if they don't want a damaged leader?"_

Luna stopped and looked me in the eyes, "Usagi, you did great tonight. This is the first time you've used that magic, of course you haven't mastered it yet. There is nothing wrong with you being the leader." She stared until I nodded at her, "Besides, what if they have disabilities too? There is no guarantee you are the only injured member of your team."

My eyes widen at the implication. _"What if they were? They'd probably accept me more easily but I shouldn't be hoping my future teammates are disabled just so I can feel better. I need to stop thinking about this,"_ time to change the subject.

 _"Luna, I don't think I can transform every time you need to talk to me. What are we going to do about that?"_ Am I going to have to _teach her sign language? That'll be weird."_

Luna gave me a look that made me realize I had projected too much again. Oops. I apologized and then she replied.

"There is a way to bring a magic you have in uniform to your civilian form. It's not the easiest thing to do and it doesn't work with some magics, like your attack, but I think you can do it."

We had finally reached my house. We both hopped back through my bedroom window and after I closed it I turned back to her. _"Really?"_

"Now listen, even if you succeed, you can't constantly use it. If someone saw, that could cause a lot of problems for you, the could even figure out your secret identity." I nodded seriously to let her know I understood the responsibility of this.

" _Only to talk to you, I understand."_ She stared deeply into my eyes, seeming to be searching for something in my expression. Whatever it was she must have found it because she nodded and then gestured towards where I display my jewelry.

"Ok. Grab something portable and easy to put on, but not something that you would miss. Nothing you would wear by mistake." I searched through my jewelry and accessories trying to find something that fit. Eventually I found the perfect thing; ornamental hair chopsticks. They were a joke gift from my little brother about if my hair looks like food, it deserves its own set of chopsticks. To his credit they weren't ugly; they had some fancy sparkling charms hanging from the tip of them that were rather cute. Things like rabbits, flowers and hearts. It was a nice gift but I never really wore them.

I turned to Luna, awaiting my next instructions. "Now I want you to de-transform and then transform again so you can feel the magic of that because the next step is difficult." I did as told. There was a strange feeling as the magic faded and for the most part condensed in the brooch. I still felt magic, even if it felt muted in my regular form, but that was odd as I never felt it before, or maybe I just never noticed.

After transforming back into Sailor Moon I looked an Luna expectantly.

"Can you feel the magic inside of your hairpieces, the ones that let you speak? What you need to do is, as you let go of your transformation, pull some of the magic from those hair gems and put it in your new jewelry. This may take a few tries so don't be discouraged if you don't get it immediately."

What followed was at least ten minutes of trying this until it finally worked.

I looked down at my new magic hair ornaments and started jumping and pointing at them smiling. Luna smiled and gestured for me to try using them. I quickly shoved them in one of my buns. _"Testing. Testing. OMG we did it Luna!"_

I took them out and looked down at my magic creation. The chopsticks were now a pearly white with small gold engravings of the moon on them. The charms dangling from its tips now included stars and moons and a charm that looked exactly like my brooch. There were a few hearts and gems as well. It looked brand new! This was amazing!

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 **ok so I put up a poll on my profile about the options of the rest of the team being disabled too. I had the idea of Mina's sailor v mask letting her see despite being blind and then i thought up something for everyone. the options are only usagi being disabled, all the inners, or a compromise of some of them.  
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 **Also I drew the hair ornaments and am going to try to find a way to link the pics if you remove the spaces i think it works...**  
 **: / / s t a . s h /  
**

 **/21sdrh6rkoj4**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long wait, my work and school schedule leaves little time for writing. I broke this chapter into two parts because it was getting too long and I was only half-way through.**

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Chapter **Ami** /Mercury

"Vocal Speech"

'Sign Language'

" _Sailor Moon speech_ "

"Usagi! Good morning!" Naru called out from her desk. I smile and head over to her. "You will not believe what happened yesterday!" she shouts. Yesterday, yeah, it is hard to believe. But the brooch on my chest and hairpieces in my bag say it really happened. Which immediately makes me relieved that I had actually managed to save Naru; I couldn't imagine life without her.

'What? Did something good happen?' I pretend that I don't already know what happened to her yesterday. About the monster that posed as her mother and tried to kill her.

"You know Sailor V?" She starts. I nod of course, I know about Sailor V. She started fighting crime here in Tokyo but more recently people have been seeing her overseas. Which reminds me, I have to ask Luna if Sailor V is one of the Senshi in my team. "Well, it looks like there is a new Sailor V; Sailor Moon! Yesterday, a monster attacked my house and this mysterious new Sailor saved me!"

'Are you ok?' I was actually really worried about her, I didn't get to look over her very much as Sailor Moon, so I don't know if I missed any injuries.

"No, no, I'm fine, really, you worrywart," she said as I started physically checking her for injuries. "I was really tired after the attack, and my neck is a bit sore, but I basically feel fine today. Stop fussing, I have more gossip!" I frowned at her, pausing from searching her neck, it was very faintly bruised. She noticed what I saw, "Ok, yeah, there's a bruise, but I'm not dead! Now don't you want to hear about the hero who saved me?" Still frowning, I rolled my eyes and motioned for her to continue. She grinned, "Ok so Sailor Moon kicked that monster's butt! She destroyed it with one attack! To be honest, her first attack missed, but the fact that it was still a one hit kill is super cool!"

She spent the next few minutes talking about a battle that I pretended to know nothing about, she was exaggerating some things, but I was impressed how much she noticed in the middle of a fight.

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

'What? Did you remember some detail of Sailor Moon's outfit?' Apparently, the magic of the Uniform makes it harder for non-Senshi to remember exactly what it looks like. And the magic is strengthened more while wearing the mask, so Naru was struggling to remember what I looked like last night. She could tell I was blonde, had a blue and pink uniform, and that my mask matched Sailor V's. Everything else was a bit fuzzy.

"No, this is school gossip. I can't believe I almost forgot about this, she should be getting here today!" Ok, now I was confused, who was she talking about?

'Who? Explain.' She smirked at my obvious interest in her gossip. I'm not the biggest gossip but Naru has great gossip etiquette, she tries to stick to facts (as much as you can while gossiping) and never talks about personality bashing gossip. If she does mention someone's personality, it's in a positive light. So, if she has some gossip to share, I'm willing to hear it.

"Well, do you know who Mizuno Ami is? She is one of the smartest students in the country! And she did all her schooling at home, I heard it was for medical reasons, but I'd ask her yourself to be sure, and here's the biggest part; she's joining our school! I overheard some of the teachers and it's possible she might even be joining OUR class! Isn't that amazing? A certified genius in our class! Some people have been saying that they think she has a bad attitude, but I wouldn't believe them, they sounded like they were just jealous." She said all of this very quickly and finished off with an assertive nod.

'Well I can't wait to meet her,' I smile at her and then the bell rings. Our homeroom teacher walks in.

"Quiet everyone, I have some special news for you" Naru shot me a look that practically said I told you so. "Someone is joining our class today and I want all of you to treat her politely. Miss Mizuno? You can come in now."

The door opened again and a girl stepped through. She had short, blue hair, a gentle smile, warm, blue eyes… and I noticed a medical ID bracelet on her wrist. Another point to Naru and her mysterious gossip sources. As her eyes met mine, I felt a small pulse of magic originating from my brooch. I almost didn't notice it, it felt very gentle, like water flowing over me. But it stopped when we broke eye contact. What was that? What did it mean? Is she magic too? Luna said I might be able to feel a "magic reaction" around other Senshi, was this that?

"Introduce yourself, and then take a seat next to Miss Tsukino. Tsukino raise your hand for her." I did, gestured to the empty seat next to me and smiled at her. She gave a small, nervous smile back.

"Hello, my name is Mizuno Ami. This is the first school I've ever attended so please forgive me for any future trouble I may cause because of that." She spoke in a timid voice, looking at the ground. She then quickly walked to the seat next to me and sat down. I pull out my chalkboard, writing a greeting on it.

"Hello Ami! I'm Usagi, let's be great friends!" I flashed a smile as I displayed the board to her. She blushed but then frowned.

"Miss Usagi, I know I'm new but I'm pretty sure writing notes to classmates is discouraged. And I don't understand why you didn't just say that, isn't a greeting in a note when you could just talk rude?" She sounded scolding, but there also seemed to be genuine curiosity in her questions. If this really was her first school experience, she might actually have no idea how social interactions like this work. So instead of getting upset, I cleared my board and replied.

"I can't speak. I was in a bad accident when I was little so I'm sorry, but I can't greet you properly." She looked shocked and immediately apologetic.

"Oh, that was terribly rude of me wasn't it? I just assumed you were doing something wrong, that's not nice at all. I'm sorry, sometimes I can be really insensitive without noticing. If you really meant it about wanting to be my friend then please tell me when I'm crossing a line, I really can't tell on my own sometimes." She seemed rather flustered and embarrassed, I forgave her immediately. My mother once said that she thinks that there is a price to being a genius; that so many geniuses, despite their good grades, have a low "emotional IQ" and can miss social cues and stuff. I was suddenly reminded of this hearing Ami babble about how I need to tell her if she's being rude.

'It's ok, really,' I sign at her, giggling silently. She noticed the movement and looked excited all of a sudden.

'I can sign too!' she proudly gestures. "You probably learned how after your accident right? My mom is a doctor and I had the opportunity to learn when I was younger so that's why I know. Was it difficult to learn for you? You said you were young when it happened, right? Do you think your younger age helped you learn faster or slower?"

She was very enthusiastic, it was kinda adorable, but she told me to tell her when she is breaking social rules, so I should probably stop her and tell her that some people might not appreciate having to talk about their trauma too much. Like, I wasn't really offended, mainly because it was her and I was finding her genuine curiosity endearing, but I could definitely picture a scenario where I would not enjoy talking about the time immediately following my accident and the pain and hardship it took to learn and use a whole new way of communication. Like the guy who mocked me in sign yesterday, I'd be mad if he asked me these questions. But from Ami I feel completely willing to answer her… Odd, seeing as I've only known her a few minutes. Maybe it was because of that magic thing I felt earlier. Or maybe it was just her. Either way, I felt very calm and relaxed in her presence.

I grab her hand to get her attention, she paused in her ramblings of how children scientifically learn languages easier than adults do. 'I'm sorry Ami, but you told me to tell you if you crossed a line. I didn't mind, but most people wouldn't like having to talk about their recovery from trauma during a first meeting. Again, I didn't mind, but be aware that other people might, you know?' I smiled at her.

"Alright everyone, class is starting. Usagi! Quit talking back there!" I turn and give our teacher my best 'I'd sass you if I could' face. "You know what I mean! Don't think I don't see when you and Naru are signing at each other during lessons. It's nice that your new friend can sign too but you'll have to wait till break to talk, it's time to learn."

'We'll talk more later!' I smile at Ami and then focus on the start of the lesson.

When lunch comes I immediately push my desk up to Ami's and Naru is quick to follow, the three of our desks making a small but nice table. Ami looks a little flustered but happy. I have a feeling she wasn't expecting to get friends so quickly. Well, too bad, because I like her and already am planning a ton of fun friend activities together. I wonder if she likes sleepovers?

"Ami, why don't you tell us some more about yourself?" Naru said with that look in her eyes that told me she was interested in Ami too and will not be satisfied until we all know each other well enough that we could practically be family. When you become friends with Naru, you gain a friend for life. "To make it more interesting we could answer any questions you have for every one of ours you answer?"

"Uh, sure." Ami frowned slightly before trying to fake a smile. She wasn't really comfortable with this. I'll give her an out, I don't want to bully my new friend into talking about things she doesn't want to.

'You don't have to do that. Naru is just enthusiastic. Maybe we could talk and share like normal people instead of interrogating our new friend, right Naru?' She stuck her tongue out at me. I returned the gesture and continued. 'So, we already know I'm mute, and that Naru is nosey' more childish gestures given 'and that you are smart and nice. That's like step one to getting to know each other so let's all say another thing we'd like to share. You don't have to share a big secret or anything, just something you want us to know about you.' I smiled at the two of them. 'I'll start. Naru knows me pretty well so I'm gonna say something that even she doesn't know yet'- "Wait what don't I know?"- 'Yesterday I adopted a stray cat! She is called Luna and has black fur and a crescent shaped scar on her head.' I don't see any harm in them knowing I have a cat, I just won't mention that she can talk.

"That's sweet of you, do you know how she got her scar?" Ami asked. You know, I honestly don't know if it's a scar or not. My initial thought was scar but then she started talking and I think it could be some sort of magic symbol or something. Not that I'm gonna say any of that. Time to fudge the truth a bit. Not the best way to start a friendship, but it's what I get for bringing up my magic cat. This was a terrible conversation idea. I could have said almost anything else and wouldn't have to worry about the secret magic stuff, why do I do these things to myself?

'Um, well, I'm not sure. But I did meet her when some younger kids were bullying her so maybe they hurt her?' That's almost the truth. Now someone change the subject so I don't have to lie anymore. 'Ok, Ami, you next. Tell us something we don't know about you.'

She looked thoughtful for a moment then said, "I know at least four languages; Japanese, Japanese Sign Language, German, and English." I quietly applauded her and smiled. Naru made an impressed whistle and clapped a bit too.

"That's amazing and all, really you are definitely our new study buddy, but can I ask why German?" Naru asked. Ami could have taken that as mocking, but it seems she could feel our genuine enthusiasm for her and her accomplishments. That, or her being homeschooled has not exposed her to the rude ways of jealousy and sarcasm. If that's the case, we must protect this pure innocent girl. No bullies will touch her, or else. Naru and I can be scary if we want, I think, we protect people we care about…I mean becoming a magical Soldier means I can definitely protect my friends, right?

Ami smiled at the two of us, "Well Germany is one of the leading countries in medical advancement. My mom's a doctor and I think I want to be one too, so I figured I should learn that too." Ok. Seriously, she HAS to be a Senshi like me, I've known her for like an hour, but it feels like I already knew her the second we met. Whatever magic feeling I got at the beginning of the day has only gotten stronger and I know I would seriously hurt someone to protect her. That has to be the magic reincarnation stuff Luna mentioned. That's kinda cool, instant best friends, at least that makes it look like we might all be friends and not just teammates.

Naru's fun fact was about her family's store, which turned into a conversation about Sailor Moon, a conversation I did not participate too much in, until finally I decided to try and get Ami to hang out after school with us. I never ended up going to the arcade yesterday, so I have the money to do that today if we wanted to hang out there for a bit.

'Want to hang out together after school? We can show you fun places to hang out!' I gave Ami a smile hoping to convince her.

After school Naru and I grabbed Ami and dragged her into town. First stop was Naru's shop, it was just a quick visit to show Ami where it was because Naru's mom was taking the day off after the whole monster thing yesterday. Having a monster pretend to be you and try to kill your daughter deserves a day off.

We then started headed for The Crown Arcade and Diner, pointing out shops as we walked. But we were also trying to tell Ami how awesome The Crown was because its seriously awesome there and I really want her to like it. 'Ami, it is a half arcade half diner! The food is great, and Motoki, the guy running the arcade, adds new games often and will give you some quarters of you are almost out sometimes, and he is really nice and doesn't treat me weirdly because of my condition! And his younger sister is a waitress in the diner half, it's a family business, and she is about our age and really nice too! You are going to love it!'

At some point during our walk, Luna appeared. I pointed her out and the other two pet her a bit as I tried to get her attention without them noticing. I pointed at Ami, then my broach, then smiled and gave a thumbs up at her. She looked at me for a moment before she turned more of her attention onto Ami. As Luna stared into Ami's eyes, I felt another magical pulse; Luna's warm, protective magic seemingly trying to coax Ami's magic out and Ami's soothing water-like magic. It was clear Luna had felt it as well because she looked back at me and gave a subtle nod. I grinned, called it.

"You know Usagi, you should really get her a collar or something to show she's not a stray anymore. Especially if she's an outdoor cat. Don't want animal control stealing your cat because they thought she was stray."

"Oh, so true! This beautiful girl here deserves a lovely collar, or cat jewelry, something that ID's her but is also pretty!" Naru and Ami had a point, I really should get her something like that.

'I'll get on that.' Maybe something with a nice bow, and her ID tag could be moon shaped…

When we finally entered The Crown, I felt a strange feeling of security and home-ness. As much as I love this place, this was a new feeling, and I had a guess as to why I am just now feeling it after years of coming here. Someone or something in the building has to be magic. Luna said I might, maybe, occasionally feel magic, she did not say I was gonna be able to feel all the magic. I'm gonna have to ask her about this. It could be a good thing, like I'm just magic sensitive. Like those people who can smell more or taste more, this just might be another sense and I am someone who can notice magic easily. Again, would have to talk to Luna later, right now is Girl Time.

I greeted Motoki and he leapt up to greet the three of us, looking very excited about something.

"Hey Usagi! We just got a new game that I know you'll love!" He grinned and then looked to Naru and Ami, "Naru, lovely to see you, as always. And who is your new friend?" I looked at Naru, time for her to play translator. As nice and understanding people can be about my condition, it's rare to see someone actually learn a whole new language just to talk to me. Some will learn a few gestures and phrases; like good morning and how are you and stuff. I'm incredibly lucky that Naru learned Sign with me, I can talk to her freely and she can help the rest of the population know what I'm saying.

'This is Ami, she transferred to our class today and we are already becoming great friends so of course I had to bring her here! There is nowhere better to celebrate a new friendship!' Ami looked touched immediately and smiled at me, if her eyes looked slightly wet then there's no need to draw attention to that. Naru relayed the message to Motoki and he smiled and nodded.

"Well, let's make this extra special then, ok? I'm giving each of you a complementary shake and I'll bring it over to the game I want to show you. It's a Sailor V game, I saw it and knew you'd love it," He said in his best older brother voice. He always likes to treat me like I'm his other little sister, which I love, the man is so sweet and the best pseudo brother. If he didn't feel like a brother to me, I would probably have developed a crush on him he's so nice.

Situated toward the back of the arcade, a brand-new machine sat. It was placed near a booth, almost as if it was designed to be near where a specific group of people were gathered. Perhaps five to six girls specifically. Now, that describes most things in an arcade and I wouldn't normally jump to magic conspiracies, but this was different. It was different for one very specific reason that had me wondering about it. It was magic. Very magic. I could tell that this was a large part of the reason the whole place felt like magic now. How did Luna even do this? How can a magic cat make and place a magic arcade game in a place without anyone noticing? Luna said we'd be a team of five, plus the princess too I guess, and a booth that sized right next to a game about a magical Sailor Soldier, something I just became, that was practically oozing magic. Yeah, this wasn't a coincidence. I raised an eyebrow at Luna, who had followed us in. she looked slightly embarrassed I saw through her efforts so easily but was not sorry, looking at me and then the game. I rolled my eyes and walked over to it. Alright, let's play the magic game.

It was actually really fun. And I was really good at it seeing as this was my first time playing it. I'm gonna guess this is a training game of some sorts seeing as the whole game is you killing Youma. And as I played, some of the magic of the game washed over me and I became more confident in my abilities as a Senshi. When I lost, a prize came out of the machine. It was a pen. Pink, with a large crystal on the top and, like everything else today, felt a little bit magic.

I handed my spot over to Ami, letting her play the game. I had a feeling Luna wanted that and the small nod she gave me as I did, confirmed it. I wiggled the pink pen at her a bit, questions all over my face.

Huh, she might not be able to sign, but Luna is still pretty good at non-verbal communication. That glare practically screamed "Not right now" at me. I looked back at Ami instead to see how she was doing.

Wow. Just, wow. That girl is crazy good. She beat my score already and is still going strong. If this really is a training game, I'm glad she's on my side because she is kicking Youma butt right now. She's a genius and already potentially a good Senshi; is Luna sure she's not supposed to be the leader?

As I stared in awe, Luna jumped onto my shoulders. It startled me slightly, but not as much as when she started whispering. "Usagi, I'm proud you managed to find your new partner on your own. I received intel that Ami could be a Senshi, but you figured it out before I could even check. And, yes, that game is probably what you are guessing, it is here to help train you all, and that pen you are holding is not a normal pen. But explanations can wait, right now let's watch your friend become one step closer to Sailor Mercury." Huh, Mercury, cool. Her little speech answered some questions and I did want Girl Time, so I accepted it at that.

"Oh," Ami gave a soft noise as she lost, like she was so in the zone that she forgot about everything else while playing that game, the same thing happened to me, so I wouldn't be surprised. Luna stared at the machine for a second and with her still on my shoulders I could feel her magic again. Another pen dropped from the machine.

Ami picked up her new, blue pen and stared at it for a moment. I wonder if she felt anything. The pen had a golden cap with the symbol of Mercury on it. I'm not sure what my pen is yet, but I think that hers is her transformation item, like my broach.

I grinned and held out my pen toward hers, 'We should use these at school, they are cute and useful!'

I turned to Naru, 'Want to see if we can get three in a row?'

She smiled and sat at the game, but then her phone beeped and when she checked it, she scowled. "Sorry guys, that was my alarm, I have to head to cram school now or I'll be late. Its that new place, Crystal Seminar, I don't want to be late my first day."

After a few assurances that of course that was fine, and studies are important, she left the arcade. Ami said that she should probably head home too, but she was very happy about meeting me today and hoped we could hang at school again tomorrow, which I of course agreed to and assured her that we would definitely hang out of school too.

Which just left me and Luna. I looked at her and she jumped onto the game. I felt her magic again strongly spreading through the whole building and then she placed her paw on the screen. More magic as a staircase suddenly appeared leading downward next to the game. What? How?

I looked around, trying to see how the rest of the people in the building were reacting to this very big thing. No one was looking. Not even a glance in our direction. It was like they couldn't even see us, or know we exist or something. I looked back at Luna, I have so many questions, she just started walking down the stairs. Ok. Alright. Just follow the magic cat, at some point all this weirdness will stop surprising me, hopefully.

I grabbed my hair sticks as I started down the stairs. As the entrance sealed behind me, I put them in, I have way too many questions.

" _Luna, I mean this in the nicest way possible but what the heck? How? All of this, how? I thought yesterday was weird but god, today just keeps getting weirder."_ The staircase ended in a large room full of computer things _?_ I'm not sure what I'm looking at, there's a lot of tech and screens and stuff that looks like its from the future or something and also weird magic-y things everywhere too. _"Luna, what is this place?"_

"This is your base. This is where you and your team will gather to prepare for any future danger. There are files of information on every member of the Dark Kingdom we know of and their weaknesses. All Youma data gets entered here in case we ever need to pull info as a reference to a future youma. The computers here also have most of the remaining data from the silver kingdom on them. Information on past Senshi powers and battle history, as well as many records of magical artifacts we have remaining from our kingdom. While some of the magical tools you will receive are new, some are actually powerful relics. You are not ready to use it yet, but you will gain a tool called the Crescent Moon Wand that has been used by lunarians since long before the Silver Millennium. While this is the central intel hub, there are also areas here where you can practice sparring and using your magic in a safe environment. This base will be a vital part of your team's growth."

 _"Ok, that's nice and all but_ _ **why are we under the arcade?**_ _How?!"_ I gestured wildly at the ceiling, trying to emphasize my point of how crazy this is!

"Technically, we're not." _"What?"_ "Let me finish. This base is… subspace I guess you could call it. It exists all on its own, self-contained, and can only be reached through magic." I was still confused, and it must have shown because she kept explaining. "Think of a bubble, or a snow globe, this base is in it, but you can enter the bubble with magic. No natural entrances and exits, the only doorways are magical. The space is everywhere and nowhere. Since you create the doors yourself, they can be anywhere. I set one up at that arcade because it was a building that wouldn't be suspicious for a group of young girls to be seen frequenting until you learn the magic to make the doorway to here on your own."

 _"I think I understand? Magic makes a door, but I can't make one, so you made one for me?"_ I think I got it. And she did make some good points, if I understood correctly. Luna made a door at the arcade 'cause I can't, and a group of people hanging out in an arcade is less suspicious than if we went to, like, Naru's store every day or disappeared down alleyways frequently. I guess, its still weird and I still have questions.

"Basically, yes. Now does that solve that question? Because I believe we had more things to discuss." I looked up at her, pulled away from the thoughts of doorways for now. I have more important questions.

 _"Uh, yeah! We have more to talk about! Today has been crazy! Luna, why can I feel so much magic? You said I might notice magic, not feel every little magical thing that happens around me! What the heck?"_

Luna narrowed her eyes at me, "What do you mean 'feel everything'?"

Well, I'm glad I asked, but now I'm worried that this isn't normal magical girl stuff. _"I mean that all today I've been feeling magic. When Ami walked into class, I could feel her magic. Its calm, like a lake or something. And I immediately felt like I had known her my whole life, I'm guessing that's the reincarnation stuff. Then, I felt you check Ami for magic. And then, when we got to the Crown, the whole place felt magic-y making it seem super welcoming. Like, I love this place, but that was not a normal feeling. AND THE GAME! Like, I know you said it was a training game, but how does it work? It feels completely magic, and I bet it didn't exist a few days ago, and while I was playing it did weird mind magic upping my confidence or whatever. Which leaves us at the pens. Ami's was her transformation item, but I already have my broach, so I don't know what mine is…. Oh… sorry, I didn't really mean to go into a big rant but in my defense today has been weird and I'm still stressed from yesterday. Sorry."_

She gave me a bewildered stare for a long moment before she replied, "It's possible that you are just sensitive to magic. It's possible that having to do stronger magic yesterday repeatedly to transform and create your magical hair pins speech tools accelerated your magical growth. It is also possible that something in your past made you start using magic, even just a small bit, before I met you therefore you gain a large boost in power when I released your magic." She mused.

She looked at my face and must have seen something because she gave a smile and continued. "But these are theories, we may never find out the exact reason why your magic is more sensitive than expected. And, Usagi, this is a good thing. I know it must feel strange to have your whole world changed so suddenly, and you are adapting to your situation remarkably well. The fact that your magic is stronger isn't something to be worried over, but be grateful for, as it makes your new life as a Senshi easier. That being said, it is good that you question things; you obviously pay attention to the world around you and can tell when things are not as they should be, this is a valuable skill to have. And having questions for me means you aren't willing to blindly accept your new life just because a cat told you to. Be curious, ask questions and demand answers. These are all signs that you will be a good leader of your team, you are more prepared for this than you think you are."

I was kind of blown away at this point, was not expecting the heartfelt motivational speech assuring me that I am ok. So it took me more than a few seconds to fully process all of what she said and be able to respond.

 _"Well, ok then. Thank you. I'm still not sure if I agree about the me being leader thing but, while you are encouraging questions, can I ask some more? Cause I am nowhere near out of questions. The answers about the base and magic doors and feeling magic were nice but some just gave me new questions and I had more questions anyways."_

"Ask away"

 _"Ok, so, this isn't in an order of importance, just what comes out first sorta thing. That being said, here's one of the more random ones; is Sailor V a Senshi, specifically in my team?"_

Luna blinked, slightly shocked by the out of nowhere question. "Actually, yes. She has a separate mission right now but should be joining you soon. She is guided by my partner, Artemis. Artemis is like me and awakened her himself. We often trade information through this base."

 _"Is he a cat too?"_

Narrowed eyes, "We aren't cats, we are a species called Mau that can change between a humanoid and feline form. It is just easier to use the feline form most of the time." _"Space cat."_ "Not a-! Oh, whatever." She rolled her eyes, "What were your other questions?"

 _"Right, what does my pen do?"_ I held out the pink pen, looking at her intently.

"Simply put, it's a disguise pen. You use its magic to change your appearance. This may be vital in future missions where walking around as yourself may risk your secret identity or could be aided by someone with the power civilians don't have, like say a doctor or police officer. Sailor V also has a tool like this and I've been informed she uses it frequently, so I believe this will be helpful for you. To use it just say, 'Moon Disguise Power' and then whatever you want to transform into. Go ahead and try it out now for experience."

" _Well that sounds cool. What should I try first? Hmmmmmmn. I got it! Moon Disguise Power transform me into Naru!"_ And a bright flash as warm magic surrounded me. It felt similar to the Senshi broach but not quite the same, maybe weaker? As the light faded, I started to look for a mirror or something to see what I now looked like.

I looked like an exact copy of Naru. Well, actually, if I look very closely there are some slight differences, slight shades of tones off, not quite the same shade of pale and brown hair. My throat, while scar free, still didn't let me speak. I could almost feel the scar if I touched my neck, but it looked fine, I guess the magic only changes how something looks.

The next thing I noticed was that Naru's usual hair bow had the same charms as my chopsticks on them and the ribbon had turned the same pearly color as the sticks, so I guess they are acting as my speaking device in this disguise. _"So, my other magic things change too?"_ I noticed my broach on her bow, where it was on me before, but the colors were duller as if to not draw attention to it.

"Yes, your hair sticks turned into the bow. Disguises will try not to take away any magical objects you are using and will instead try to work them into the disguise."

 _"And can I change to Sailor Moon from this or do I have to get rid of the disguise first?"_

"Well, why don't you just try it and find out?" Luna grinned, as much as a cat can anyway. Seems like this is going to be a trial and error lesson. That's fine, it just means I can experiment with it faster.

 _MOON PRISM POWER MAKE UP!_ It worked, looking in the mirror I saw Naru quickly change into Sailor Moon. _"Cool, cool, so this will be handy if I need a disguise to get near wherever the monster is. Now can I disguise while being Sailor Moon? I don't know when I'd need that, but I still want to know. Hmm, maybe if we're trying to trick them about which Senshi they're fighting. Like, they prepared for Mercury but 'Surprise!' It's really me. Or, or, maybe the best way to get to the youma is to look harmless but it's dangerous so I still need my armor and magic or whatever."_

Luna seemed to approve of my line of thinking, nodding along as I rambled. "These are good ideas that you should remember in the future, but Usagi I'm incredibly happy to see you thinking of your teammates and planning strategies for them before you've even met them. Usagi, you say you won't be a good leader, but you are already doing things a good leader should! Have more faith in yourself, I have faith in you."

 _"Aww Luna! That's so sweet I'm tearing up!"_ Mood broken, she's glaring now. Damn these thought projecting hairpieces and my lack of control over what I 'say'. _"I mean, thank you. And I'm not really that big of a crybaby… as far as you know."_ A deep sigh at my disappointment in my own lack of control over this, _"Yeah… I'm just gonna keep practicing with the pen now. Way to ruin a moment, self."_

For the next couple minutes, I tried many disguises with increasingly specific demands. As I did this, I started to ask more questions. _"So, Ami has her pen now, what's the next step? Do we break into her house to tell her about her magical destiny too? I want beach curls and a red carpet worthy dress."_ Obviously, that last bit was at the pen, not Luna. It worked, the pen had yet to fail. If I could picture it, the pen could do it.

Luna gave me a look, I wasn't sure if it was at the disguise or the question, "No we aren't breaking into her house. I know I did that with you, but the situation was dire. As we are not currently aware of a youma crisis, she can wait till tomorrow to hear about her 'Magical Destiny' as you put it. Simply bring her to the arcade again tomorrow and we'll bring her here to explain things."

 _"Ok, sounds like a good plan. How do we find out about youma thingies anyway? Lolita."_ I was all lace and frills and I could definitely see the appeal of the style, all beauty and self-expression and women empowerment all at once. Naru read (and then wouldn't stop talking about) an article in the fashion magazines she reads about how Lolita fashion here in Japan started as a way for women to reject the gender expectations of the time. It basically boiled down to men saying they shouldn't wear it if they want a husband and the women telling them to piss off or something. I don't fully remember the article but I'm pretty sure that was the gist of it.

Another look from Luna, it's the disguises. "Well, the Dark Kingdom for the most part sticks to a pattern when they conduct their activities. So far, they set up shop, either by replacing a store owner with a youma, like yesterday, or by creating a fake business with a disguised youma leading it. Their current goal is to steal energy, but they know Sailor V and now you are there to stop them, so they don't drain their victims all at once. If they do, it's usually a standalone case and they retreat after. Yesterday, the jewelry being sold was draining the energy of its customers, but that stopped when you killed the youma. Sometimes we get lucky and catch the plot before the have a chance to do much harm, but it's more common that we aren't sure until we see people with the symptoms of their energy being drained. It is unfortunate that we do not currently have a better system, but it's what we have right now."

 _"Wow. That's kinda messed up. People have to get hurt for us to find out and stop more people from getting hurt. That sucks."_ We both looked at each other with solemn faces. _"Harajuku style."_

She looked up from her somber contemplation in a very sharp movement. Please say something about the disguises, I know you want to, and I have a feeling explaining fashion to a space cat will be funny.

"What are you even doing? I haven't understood a disguise command for at least five minutes! What does any of those words mean? And why do you know all those specific names? Five minutes ago, you said, 'triangular graduation' and I can't even begin to guess what that meant!"

I laughed. It was weird. I physically can't laugh and am used to my amusement being a silent thing, but I guess if the hair sticks translate thought into word, there is no reason it couldn't laugh for me. Physically, all I did was grin at Luna while my body shook with silent laughter, but the sounds of joy could be heard, and I love magic. I missed laughing.

 _"Naru reads fashion magazines and likes to talk about what she read until I physically stop her. Part of it was that her mom owning a jewelry store makes them a part of the fashion industry, but I think Naru is also genuinely passionate about it."_

I look at Luna, she still looks confused, but I just shrug and move on.

 _"So, pens, what happens if we don't have them on us all the time? The broach at least I can wear with any outfit, but we can't always be holding a pen."_

"There's a simple solution to that but let's save that lesson for tomorrow so I can tell Ami as well." Ok then. I guess the lesson is more for Ami anyways so that's fine.

 _"Ok. Now, I'm gonna try something that might not work but I still want to try. Make me look like the Moon Princess."_ I felt the magic surround me, but nothing changed. _"Well, dang, if that worked it would have made finding the princess easier. Its hard to look for someone you don't know recognize."_

"You can only change into something you can picture, but nice try." Luna smirked at me, "Plus our princess currently has magics around her to prevent things like you just tried, otherwise the Dark Kingdom could try what you just did and she wouldn't be safe."

 _"That's smart. Ok, I think that's enough for today, we better go home before it gets too late."_ Luna nodded and we both turned to the stairs. In the corner of my eye, in the mirror, for just a second, I thought I saw flowing white fabric. But when I turned to look, there was just me.

* * *

 **Ok so I was gonna end the chapter when Ami left and Usagi and Luna were alone and make the training and base reveal a interlude chapter but it sort of forced its way here so the next chapter should be the continuation of Ami's senshi awakening. Also I made Naru the one to go to the seminar and not Ami because Ami just started school after homeschooling, she probably wouldn't think of going to anyone but her personal tutors for extra help.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok second half of Ami's intro. Now storywise, i'm mainly following crystal and manga but i might ad a few 90's anime things if i really want. next is an interlude then we start Rei**

* * *

Chapter Ami/ **Mercury**

"Vocal Speech"

'Sign Language'

" _Sailor Moon speech_ "

The first thing I noticed when I saw Ami the next morning was that she had her pen on her. I smiled, I had mine too, of course I also knew that they were more than just pens. Actually, I was slightly surprised that they actually worked as pens. I had guessed that their true magical purpose would make them not work like a normal pen, but I was using it last night and it seems normal. What happens when it runs out of ink? Will it just refill itself?

I shook my head to clear it of pointless questions, that I'll probably ask Luna anyway later, and sat down next to Ami. 'Good morning!'

Ami smiled at me, "Good morning Usagi! I wanted to thank you for reaching out and being my first friend. My mom was really happy when I told her I made two friends on my first day of school. She was nervous about the switch from home tutoring to public school, hearing about you and Naru really seemed to make her happy. She will probably want to meet you at some point."

'That sounds nice, we should have a sleepover or something!' I smiled and was going to say more, but Naru fell into the chair next to me with a thud and a groan. We both looked over at her; she was slumped down in her seat with her forehead on the desk. I could see bags under her eyes. 'Naru, what happened? Are you ok?'

She blinked at us for a minute, Ami repeated my question out loud, finally her eyes focused on us and she sat up slightly. "Oh, hey guys. I'm just really tired. And I have a headache. And I'm not just 'sleepy' tired I'm full body exhausted. I'm blaming at least half of it on the cram school, they are taking the cram part too far. They have these weird digital lessons that give me headaches and I feel like I'm learning but I'm so tired at the end of class. Anyways I'm gonna nap until class starts, nudge me when Haruna gets here."

Well that was weird. Naru doesn't act like that. She's serious, she's the one waking me up before class. She's gone to cram schools before, what is Crystal Seminar doing that is hurting my friend so much?

"Is she ok?" Ami asked. I turned back to her and saw she looked really worried. "Does this happen a lot?"

'No, I'm worried too. But let's let her sleep for now, she looks like she needs it. Should I even wake her for class? She looks dead on her feet.'

She nodded at me, "When Miss Haruna comes in, I'll ask her if under the circumstances, seeing as she tired herself out studying not partying, Naru can get a break." I smiled at her and gave her a quick 'thank you'.

It wasn't long until Miss Haruna did come in and she did agree to let Naru sleep, especially when Ami said she'd help her go over whatever she missed. I frowned, today was supposed to be fun. I'm gonna reveal Ami's magical future to her and I wanted today to be fun. And, while Ami and I do smile at each other when we see each other using our pens to take notes, my worry for Naru never completely leaves my mind.

We end up waking her at lunch, even if you're tired, or sick or whatever is happening, you still have to eat.

"Naru? Are you feeling any better? Come on, sit up, you need to eat something."

Naru grumbled at us, ate her bento and part of mine in a record time, and fell back asleep, without answering any of our questions. The only one she responded to was 'do you want some of my lunch? You seem really hungry' as she quickly started to eat some of my lunch.

Ami and I exchanged worried looks and glances at Naru for the remainder of school. In between classes Ami whispered, "We're walking her home, right?" and I nodded immediately. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm not leaving Naru to pass out in the road on her way home.

Naru had woken up a bit more for the walk home, she was talking, but not great. "Thanks for letting me sleep guys, you're the best. Like really, I am so tired, and I have another Crystal Seminar tutoring session today and I really, really, really don't wanna fall asleep in there, the teacher is kinda creepy and mean."

She stumbled and dropped her bag; a few items fell on the sidewalk. I bent down to pick them up when I noticed the cd. It felt wrong. Really wrong. Like magic but sick and twisted and horrible. I grabbed it and quickly put it in my bag, there is no way that is a good thing for Naru to have.

When we dropped Naru off, Ami and I spoke to her mother. I said that I don't think she should go to tutoring today and Ami added that she might need medical help and taking her to a doctor wouldn't be a bad idea after how she acted today. Ami mentioned that they could go to her mother's hospital and she would probably give her a free checkup.

When we left the house the two of us stopped for a moment. Am I really supposed to ask Ami to go to the arcade now? That feels wrong, my friend is sick. And I think the cd has something to do with it. So I do have to go to the arcade, to get to the base and have Luna help me figure out what this is. Ok, that sounds like a plan.

"Why did you take that cd?" Ami said beside me, turning to look at me without judgement, but just curiosity.

Alright Ami looks like your magical adventure is about to begin.

'I have something I really need to tell you, but not here. Follow me please.'

The walk to the Crown was quiet, tense, but I had to wait till we get to the base. Ami is logical, she probably wouldn't listen if I started talking about magic right here, we need proof, undeniable in your face proof. So, we're going to the base before I even start explaining and then I'll do what Luna did to me and have her transform so she can feel how real it is.

I spotted Luna at the doors of the Crown, she followed us in like yesterday. She seemed to notice the tense atmosphere and gave me a questioning look that I couldn't really answer yet. I waved at Motoki before rushing over to the Sailor V game. I picked up Luna, placed her on the console, then turned to face Ami. She was looking confused, understandable given the circumstances.

'Please stay calm, everything will be explained in just a minute.' I turned to Luna and she activated that magic "pay no attention to the girls walking down a magic staircase" thing she did yesterday as the stairs appeared.

"What the heck?" I feel for you Ami, that was me yesterday. Didn't expect the semi swear though, she seems too innocent to swear. Don't judge a book, I guess.

I grabbed her hand and started heading down the stairs, as soon as the entrance sealed behind us I started grabbing for my hair sticks.

"Usagi, what is this? What is going on? Where are we?" question time. I turn to her in the center of the main room of the base, sticking in my hair pieces as I did. I really hope Luna doesn't expect me to explain everything on my own.

 _"Ami! Calm down,"_ I smile at her. She looks even more confused. _"Short answer; magic. Lots and lots of magic."_

She started a very confused ramble, "I, but, what? Magic? You're speaking? But your mouth isn't moving. Magic isn't real. This is all so impossible."

 _"Ok, now to start on the long answer. I'm Sailor Moon and you are Sailor Mercury. We are magic warriors from a dead magical kingdom and we've been reborn to fight evil and protect a princess."_

Luna gave me a look, "that's a very short 'long answer'. You didn't even give any details about, well, anything."

"Your cat is talking!" Ami has passed confused and entered shock mode.

 _"Ha, saw that one coming. Look, I'll explain with detail if you analyze this for me,"_ I held out the wrong-feeling disk, _"This is Dark Kingdom magic right? It feels horrible. And somethings wrong with Naru and if its that disk I want it gone as soon as possible."_

"I can tell you right now that is definitely Dark Kingdom magic. If we scan it, it'll tell us what it does exactly, I bet I could guess what it is, but better safe than sorry." She motioned to the main console and I placed the disk on it. Scans were appearing on the screen nearest to it, but I couldn't tell what they said.

I turned back to Ami, explanation time, for real this time. _"Ok, that's happening, now where do I start? Umm, meet Luna? Two days ago, she gave me a magic broach and told me to go kill a magic monster. Yesterday, she gave you your pen, using the arcade machine. It'll let you transform?"_

I sound crazy, I know I'm telling the truth and I still sound crazy. Ami looks skeptical and like shock mode is gonna turn into panic mode soon and I really don't want that _. "How do I explain in a way that she won't freak out on me?"_

"You can't, really. You're changing her worldview, everyone panics at that." Luna said, looking at me.

 _"Oops."_ She turned to look at Ami.

"Mizuno Ami, you are the reincarnation of a magical warrior from the Silver Millennium. A long time ago there was a kingdom on the moon, and the other planets as well, and this kingdom was full of peace, magic and prosperity and spread across all the planets of this star system. But a great evil destroyed the kingdom. The queen, using the magic of the Silver Crystal, sealed it away, along with sending the souls of her daughter and the Sailor Senshi ahead to be reborn in the future."

Holy crap I think that's the exact same speech she gave me. Did she practice it? She has an 'insert name here' speech explaining our fate. Wow. Oh crap _she's glaring how much did I say?"_

"There are five of you, excuse me for trying to stay consistent with the information I give you all."

 _"Sorry."_ I really am, she is right, we should all know the same amount. I shouldn't tease. She turned her head back toward Ami.

"Ahem, as I was saying… You are Sailor Mercury, one of the Sailor Senshi. The evil from before, the Dark Kingdom, is breaking its binds and sending monsters, Youma, into this world. It is your job to stop those monsters and to help find and protect the princess. The princess is the only one who can reseal them. The pen you have will let you transform. Hold it up and say 'Mercury Power'. Transforming will make the rest of the explanations easier."

Ami… seemed to be somewhere between calm acceptance and total panicking so I decided to try and help. _"Ami, look here. Watch me transform, then I want you to try ok?"_

She looked me in the eyes and seemed to snap, "Usagi, what? What is happening? I'm smart, I know I am, I've spent most of my life studying. And I know, logically, magic doesn't exist! Except, this! All of this! The impossible room, the talking cat, the psychically speaking friend, the weird feeling in the back of my head that wants me to just agree with all of this, this is all impossible! And if magic is real, is all my knowledge useless? Did I spend my life learning just for a CAT to tell me that no, magic is real and nothing matters?!" At this point she had grabbed my shoulders and was leaning toward me with intensity.

 _"Luna? Help."_ I don't know how to handle this. I didn't question the magic this deeply. I thought I was dreaming until I didn't and at that point Luna had convinced me. Ami is having a clashing of world views. I don't know if our magic makes everything we think we know wrong, but I'd guess that that is unlikely. It's not like everyone is magic, so things like laws of nature still mostly apply. Just maybe not to us…

"Ami, calm down. While it is true that some facts are now changed by your knowledge of magic, it does not change everything. The sun still shines, the Earth still turns, you just have more knowledge to learn now. And, yes, some of the magic will contradict some of the rules of humans, but technically you aren't human and have to learn how Lunarians work." _"Wait, what?"_ "Humans, for the most part, don't have magic. There are some exceptions, but as a general rule, the species isn't very magical. So, it makes sense for the history and scientific rules of humans to not include magic. But lunarians integrated magic with almost every aspect of their lives, which means they, you, have different rules. The people of Mercury, whom you are one of, were especially adept and mixing magic and technology. Most of the machines in this base were made by someone from Mercury. This will really make more sense once you've transformed, so please try that now."

Ami looked skeptical, which was way better than the panic. "That still doesn't make much sense… but if Usagi says this is real, I'll try." She looked at me, I nodded and gave her a, hopefully, reassuring smile.

 _"MOON PRISM POWER MAKE UP!"_ As Sailor Moon, I looked at her and let her examine me. I took off my mask, it felt kinda rude to keep it on when there is no need to hide my identity from her. _"Perfectly safe, I promise."_

She looked at me, then her pen, and nodded. She held it up, "MERCURY POWER MAKE UP!" Her transformation was a flash of blue light and bubbles and left Sailor Mercury in Ami's place. I gestured to the mirror I was using yesterday to look at my disguises. While she looked at her super self, I did too. Her uniform was all blues instead of my pink and blue. Her mask seemed to be made of blue glass. It almost looks like a screen, like for a computer or something. She had several blue stud earrings piercing her left ear and when she ran her finger over one, the mask/screen disappeared off her face. She already had blue hair and eyes, but they seemed more vibrant now.

I grinned at her, _"Ami, you're officially Sailor Mercury!"_ and leaped at her in a hug. _"How do you feel?"_

She turned to face me, my arms still around her shoulder in a light hug. Honestly, I was incredibly happy that I wasn't alone anymore, even if that meant being leader. It has only been two days and I've been stressed about being the only hero the entire time. Ami and I are equally clueless about this magic thing, and it's nice to have another person to talk to about this, no offence to Luna but the cat that supplies the magic knowledge can't really sympathize about the shock of suddenly being required to kill monsters.

"I feel… calm now. I still have a ton of questions, but I just also feel safe and secure. Odd."

 _"Well your magic is rather calming, like swimming in cool water."_ I could feel her magic more clearly than yesterday. Apparently, what I felt yesterday was just a small part of what was just unlocked by transforming. _"Luna, any results on the scan yet? Why was Naru basically a zombie today?"_

Luna looked over the screen, closely reading the text that I couldn't read. What language is that? Aww, crap, I'm gonna have to learn it aren't I? "As I thought, the main function of this disk is to drain energy from whoever watches it. There is a slight hypnotic element to it to encourage repeated use and sharing with others despite the drain to the user." She paused and looked at us, looking at me she seemed to know what I was about to ask and answered before I could, "The Dark Kingdom has been sealed away for so long, and have just recently reawaken, they are stealing energy to make up for all they have lost over the years and free what is still sealed. We don't want that, of course, that's why you kill the Youma who they send to gather energy." Ok, that explains fighting Youma to Ami for me, also it's a bit more than I got out of her yesterday so yay for more info.

 _"But what about Naru? You said yesterday they try to drain energy in a way that doesn't attract attention but Naru was seriously bad."_

"Naru is an unlucky case here. Her store was the last base, and the youma was draining energy from her directly by the time we got there. That usually takes a few days to fully recover from. But the very next day, Naru was a victim of this and it was too much for her to handle. She will recover with bedrest and food, so don't worry, it will just take a little longer because of how much energy was taken." She gestured at the disk, "the other humans who used this were most likely much less obvious with their symptoms. In a way, it's good that Naru's case is more severe because it has alerted us of the new youma base very quickly." I glared. "But of course, her safety is most important and I'm not wishing her any harm by saying that I am simply trying to find a silver lining." Much better.

 _"Ok, so Naru will be fine in a few days. Good. What do we do now? Do we just walk into the building and start busting down doors till we find the Youma? Do we go right now? Wait till all the students go home? What's the plan? Last time, Naru was being attacked and there was no time to do anything but go and stop it but if we can get it alone that sounds safer than with a bunch of students that could get hurt. Like, it could try using them as hostages if we go right now. But I don't know if its ok to leave them alone with a youma until classes are over."_

"You're thinking ahead, strategizing, good. We should wait until the students leave, you're right, they could end up hurt in the crossfire. It's better to have as few civilians around as possible, it won't always be possible but when you can you should avoid it. The youma is most likely pretending to be a teacher, or the owner of the establishment. It most likely isn't going to attack a student the way the other one attacked Naru, but just in case, put your mask back on. If someone is in danger it should show up there. Otherwise another hour or two won't kill anyone, the magic in this disk is very slow, they were most likely hoping for this trap to last at least a week before it got noticed. We should use the time until it closes to further discuss things. I'm sure Ami still has questions and I have some items for you two."

 _"Yeah I have a question; what do you mean we aren't human?"_

"You are reincarnations. Body and soul, you are the same person you were back then. Before your magic was active, some lunarian traits were suppressed, but now that you are Senshi your magic should be slowly changing your body to its proper lunarian form." She just sat there, like she hadn't just dropped a metaphorical bomb on the two of us. And we stood there for a moment, shocked silent, gaping slightly, until Ami recovered enough to speak.

"What, exactly, does that mean? What's going to change?"

"When you are transformed, you should be able to tell the difference. Your Senshi form is lunarian. As a Senshi, you have higher physical capabilities than humans. You can run faster, jump higher, endure blows humans never could, and heal at an increased rate. And of course, magic. Admittedly, even your past selves weren't as good as magic non-transformed than transformed but Senshi magic is designed to be boosted. Usagi has already shown signs of her magic growing stronger as she can sense magic around her even untransformed. Eventually, most likely, things like your larger stamina, increased physical abilities and endurance will be permanent and able to be utilized while not transformed."

Ahhh, my brain hurts, but I think I get it? Or not. I'm probably going to have to think about this for a while. Ami looks like her brain is exploding a bit less than mine, I'll ask her to help explain at some point and she's definitely in charge of telling the others.

"What about our DNA? Or blood? If a doctor analyzes our blood would they be able to tell we aren't human? My mother is a doctor and I have frequent checkups, what's going to happen there?"

 _"Smart! See! I knew Ami would ask better questions than me!"_

"Human technology most likely can't detect the differences, it's not looking for magic. Also, your magic is part of you and has a high sense of self preservation. Back in the kingdom, it wasn't uncommon to see someone's magic automatically help them. Whether it was automatically trying to heal wounds or shielding someone from an attack. I've heard of a few more extreme cases but those were rare. The point is that if the humans somehow would be able to see something in your blood, your magic would help hide it to protect you."

 _"Is it like the magic that hides our identity but for blood? I honestly am not sure if I understood anything you just said, but it sounds kinda like that."_ Way to make my brain hurt Luna. She looked at the two of us and sighed quietly.

"Yes, it is a bit like that. Your magic protects your identity whether its keeping people from recognizing you as Senshi or making your blood seem normal. There's a more comprehensive explanation but let's just move along. Ami, I actually have a few questions for you if you don't mind."

Thank you for taking pity on me, I'm not sure if Ami understood the detailed answer but I needed the dumbed down one. Hey, I don't think they heard me, I'm getting better at this projecting thing. Good, I'm full of sass and dumb comments that not everyone needs to hear.

"Um, sure, uh, yeah ask away." I couldn't guess what Ami was thinking but she looked flustered. Well, this is a weird situation. Now what does Luna want to ask Ami? Oh god, is it an uncomfortably personal question about her medical health like when she asked why I can't speak? Luna, no!

"Research on you shows that you spent most of your childhood in and out of the hospital and had little contact with other children your age, my question is what exactly made you frequent the hospital so much?" She blinked her innocent eyes at us.

 _"Don't do that, that was rude Luna and I think you it. I know you're an alien but there is no way you thought that was an ok,_ polite _thing to ask."_ Not understanding sign language is believable, ignoring all curtesy and just demanding someone's medical history is not. There was no way that was ok in her utopian society.

She looked guilty, but she continued anyway, "I'm sorry, it really is rude, but I need to know what is wrong with your health before I can fix it. And as your guardian, I need to know the status of my Senshi."

Before I could say anything else, Ami answered. "It's ok Usagi, I understand. For lack of a better word, I'm frail. My body can't handle certain things and when that happens, I get sick. Usually, sick enough to put me in bed for a week. That coupled with my difficulties befriending people my age gave me anxiety and made it even harder to function. Physical activity and stress are what causes my illnesses most of the time, it's why I was homeschooled. To avoid those elements. But things have been better recently, and I was able to convince my mother to let me go to public school as long as I stayed excused from gym." She looked at her hands then turned to me. "I was really happy when, even though I was rude to her, Usagi insisted on being my friend, but I have to ask. Did you only get close to me because you knew I was Mercury?"

 _"NO! No no no no no no no! I wanted to be friends with you because I really wanted to be your friend! When I saw you, yeah, I felt a little bit of magic, but I wasn't positive. And as soon as we started to talk, it felt like we had always known each other, and I felt like we were already friends! It did make more sense to me after Luna confirmed we were on the same team in our past lives, but I was happy and surprised that friendship from the past still felt so strong."_ The words were rushing out in a panic and I was signing my feelings too, just to be sure she understood. I really don't want a misunderstanding here.

She stared into my eyes for another moment before nodding. "Ok. Good. Then I guess my next question is if being transformed stops my body from being too frail."

Luna, well of knowledge, immediately answered, "Well, without running some tests I can't be sure, but I would assume so. Most, if not all, of the symptoms sound like things the magical boost of transforming will get rid of. And, over time, as your body accepts your magic, it's possible the problem will completely disappear. It's lucky that your health problems are this simple to fix, when research showed you and the hospital, I was a little afraid. While all the team's medical problems so far are workable with magic, this might not always be true, so I'm grateful that we are this lucky."

I zoned out for a bit as Ami asked Luna some questions, I had already heard the answer to. Five Senshi and a princess. That's three more people to find, we already have Sailor V, even if she isn't currently with us. Mars and Jupiter, I wonder what they are like. Will I find them as quickly as I did Ami? And then the princess. What is she like? Is she all snooty like a spoiled rich girl? I hope not, but I'll have to wait and see.

"What magic do I have as a Senshi? What are my attacks?" Ami regained my attention.

 _"Yeah, I have the flying death tiara, what's Ami's attack?"_

"Your attack is called Aqua Mist. It creates a fog that blinds the enemy and hinders their movements. At your current power level, it isn't an offence move that will let you kill youma on your own. Right now, it will hold them still and prevent them from seeing until Sailor Moon can attack them. Eventually, with practice, you'll learn how to form ice in the mist to attack with and even how to completely freeze an enemy. But that's in the future. Would you like to practice it right now or finish asking questions first?"

"I just have one more question. Well, actually I have many more questions, but they can wait, and I want to practice before fighting my first monster. You said you had things to give us?" I could tell she was nervous by the slight rambling and hesitance in her voice. But she definitely has reason to be nervous, this isn't exactly easy knowledge to gain.

 _"Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Present time! Whatcha got Luna?"_

"Actually, I have a bit of a problem. You see, I was going to give you two communicators that let you talk to each other through a video call but…" She trailed of nervously.

 _"You forgot I can't talk?"_ I raised an eyebrow at her. She nodded, embarrassed.

"We're going to have to figure a workaround at some point but for now let's move on to Ami's gift, the Mercury Computer. Right now, you should be seeing information displayed on the screen of your mask. This will help you analyze in battle. You can see things like the magic someone gives out and see the dark magic of a youma even if it is in disguise. You could also see certain enemies' weaknesses and the best way to defeat them. It can do so much more as well and has so much knowledge from the Silver Millennium. This is why being able to access it outside of your transformation is so important. I have it for you, but I want to ask if you'd like to change its form. It can change to mimic other electronic devices, even combine with them, so you should pick something that wouldn't be odd for someone to see you with."

 _"Wait, why doesn't she have to spend over an hour trying to get her Senshi ability to work on something else? Those hair sticks took forever to make!"_

"It was premade. Mercury tech computers were common, like how everyone in this era has a smart phone. And the computer for Sailor Mercury is a relic I managed to keep." A small blue rectangle appeared in front of her. It looks like a tiny laptop, or a DS. Hmmn.

 _"Ami, you should combine it with your phone. Or make it a tablet. Right now, it looks like a video game system and if you were trying to use it somewhere like school, you'd get scolded for playing games in class. Phones are subtler and you can always say your parent wants you to always have it on you in case of emergency."_

The Mercury computer/phone looked like a normal smartphone. The back was a light metallic blue, and where the logo should be was a symbol in gold. I recognized it as the symbol of Mercury, the same as on her pen. But when Ami unlocked the phone, it was clear that it was more than a phone now. There were apps labeled odd things like spell creator or magic radar, and the books section had a lot of history books, like Luna promised. There was a section I didn't get a look at that was apparently just for Ami as it has the Mercury symbol hiding it from me. Luna also told us that if a civilian looked at the phone, they wouldn't see the magical parts.

 _"Luna, if you find a spare computer, I'd love one of these too."_ It was really cool.

"Even if I do it won't be the same as Ami's. Hers has special abilities because it has some extra Mercury tech in it. It is the same one she had in her last life, and in her last life, she would tinker with it and invent new technologies fairly often." She paused, "But I suppose looking through the relics for a few more isn't too hard. All the computers connect to the main hub here where we store all our data, and you all having access to it portably would be good. While this is your base, we cannot guarantee you will always be here when you need information, having your own computers would help."

 _"Yay!"_

The next few hours pass as Ami and I move to a training room to practice, we are about to fight a youma after all, better be prepared. Ami played around with her Mist, seeing how thick she could make it (I literally could not see my own hands), how binding (very), and if she could try and have it not affect me, but just the youma (mixed success). As her lab rat, I was glad she wasn't trying any of the attacks Luna mentioned on me.

I figured out I could make my tiara move while thrown. Not much, but after missing Ami, I made a gesture toward myself, and instead of just popping back on my head the lethal disk stopped and headed back toward me. I guess that is more like a real boomerang. It means I have two shots at hitting a target per throw; throwing at them, and on the return. The only problem is I still can't catch it. Every time I see it zooming back towards me, I practically dive out of the way. Luna says I'll catch it pretty automatically, but I don't trust that, one hit from it would really hurt and I'm not taking chances here.

When it grew closer to the closing time of the youma base, we gathered back in the main room. On one of the screens, Luna had pulled up a map to the building, and with a quick button press, it also appeared on Ami's magic phone. There were schematics of the building itself as well, showing what halls lead to dead ends and whatnot.

Luna addressed the two of us, "Ahem, I have full confidence that you will defeat this youma with ease. I would also like to say that I am proud of the two of you. You both have taken the time you were given to prepare very seriously, and I am grateful for that. You are both well on your way to becoming great Senshi. In the spirit of encouraging your growth, tell me what your plan is and I can edit it as needed."

 _"I think we should get there before they lock up, but after they release the students, that's around now I think, and infiltrate the building disguised as security guards or janitors. Something that would warrant us being there after teaching hours. If we get there and they already locked up, breaking and entering is a necessary burden of saving the world."_

"Please avoid breaking the law if you can," _"IT WAS PLAN B!"_ "Anyway, the disguise pen is attuned to Usagi's magic and there are some other setbacks attached to that. Firstly, it is a bit harder to get a disguise to hold on someone else, but it can be done temporarily. Second, if you intend to still be transformed beneath the disguise, that is also harder to achieve. But, I do think you could hold it long enough for the both of you to enter the building, just don't be surprised if it ends prematurely."

Standing in front of the Crystal Seminar building, I use the Disguise Pen on Sailor Mercury and myself. We ended up choosing janitors, it seemed the least suspicious. It was odd seeing parts of out Senshi uniform peaking through the disguise. For example, both of us had glasses on, they were our masks. And even though I know it's not visible, I can feel the tiara on my forehead. I think if I tried to use it, the little magical control I have powering our disguises would break and reveal us as Senshi.

We easily walked into the building, no one asked any questions. Jeez, talk about ignoring the help. But it's working in our favor here so whatever. Ami had her magiphone out and was trying to lead us to the source of the dark magic. I really hope Luna can get me one… not important right now, focus on the monster hunting.

In the end it was really easy. We tracked it down to an empty classroom, got rid of the disguises, Mercury used her mist to blind and bind it, which ended up working like making the monster move through molasses, all its movements were heavy and slow. I found out my mask lets me partially see through her mist, I can see shapes, outlines, but no intricate detail, but I could definitely tell Mercury apart from that youma. I threw the death disk at it and it turned to dust. Wow, imagine how much harder this would have been if all the kids were still here and the youma could use them as human shields.

Mercury's mist cleared up and the two of us smiled at each other over this shared easy win. God, I hope all the fights are this easy. I hear a voice from the classroom window and turn.

"It looks like my help wasn't required today," Is that the tuxedo dude? "But I will always come to help you, Sailor Moon." And with that, he disappeared.

 _"Was that the guy from last time? It totally was! The hot tux guy! What did he call himself before? Tuxedo Mask? Is he gonna show up at every battle too? Cause I'm fine with that. We deserve flirtatious man candy for fighting evil."_

* * *

 **Haha sorry, couldn't help myself from ending there. I just thought itd be funny if all the youma fights ended with Usagi unfiltered talking about how hot her crush is. there will be an interlude coming soon dealing with Naru's recovery, Ami and Usagi adjusting and interrogating luna more. then, Rei.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Intermission 2_

A week has passed since Ami and I fought the Crystal Seminar Youma. In that time, a pattern has started to develop; go to school, train in the arcade, check for new youma, repeat. We continued to ask Luna questions and experiment with our magic. Ami started noticing magic in her civilian form as well. In fact, the day that it happened, when we entered the arcade, her first words were "This is not subtle." Although, it seems my detection ability is still a bit stronger than hers.

Two days after we defeated the youma, Naru came back to school, and thankfully, she seemed much better. Ami scanned her with the Mercury Phone and said that her energy levels were completely back to normal, so even if she did end up in another youma plot (which I hope she doesn't) she won't experience the extreme effects that happened this last time.

With Naru joining us at the arcade, we spent more time playing the Sailor V game that is supposed to help train us. Naru also reminded us that even though we have this new world saving responsibility, we need to relax sometimes. Of course, she doesn't know that, she had only said that we seemed stressed and need to relax. So, the trips to the arcade became not just training. We'd spend some time upstairs, drinking milkshakes and playing games, and then later, Ami and I would head down to the base.

Ami has also been spending a lot of time experimenting on her Mercury tech. Whenever I ask, she says that she's trying to figure out how to create her own 'apps'. She likes the ones there, like the tracker and stuff, but she has a few ideas that she wants to try to improve it all.

Personally, I've been a bit distracted by these dreams I'm having. It's the same dream every night, a girl with a flowing white dress running toward a man in armor. There are always flashes of other things too, like a Senshi in orange going to fight a man with silver hair while the girl in the dress (me?) pleads for her to come back. Fighting, so much fighting. A voice screaming a name I always forget when I wake up. I don't know what this means, and I don't really want to tell anyone yet.

It's been a week since we defeated the youma, Naru just left the arcade and Ami and I just went down to the base with Luna. We all gather in the main room before we go train, just in case someone has something to say. Today, Luna did.

"As you know, Artemis and I have been searching for the next Senshi by analyzing magic sources. We found a place with high magical activity, seemingly lunarian in origin. Hikawa Shrine, I want you both to investigate the shrine tomorrow. Worryingly, this also seems to be near where the next youma is. Buses leaving from Hikawa Shrine have started to go missing. This is an incredibly bold move for the dark kingdom and it could mean any number of bad things. Firstly, they might have picked up on the extra energy in that area because a Senshi lives there, which puts her in danger. Second, if they are being so bold as to kidnap people, they might be desperate. We stopped their last two plots rather quickly and easily, and that might be forcing their hand. I've told you about the four generals before, and you have researched the enemy yourselves, it is possible one of them might be a part of this plot. This plot requires stronger magic than the average youma can do, that implies a greater threat. Whether it is a General or just a stronger youma, we need to be prepared. I suggest you find the Senshi of Hikawa Shrine quickly before you attack your enemy. Understood?"

"Yes!"

 _"Yes!"_

Well, looks like things are about to get serious again.

"Luna, do you think you'll be able to find those extra computers anytime soon? I might have a communicator solution, but it would require more of them." Ami asked while working on her tech. "Also, its not really important but I wanted to show you that I figured out how to make the tech's shape change into a few 'defaults'. Phone mode, tablet mode, laptop mode." And in her hands the tech shifted between those three forms. Cool.

"Good work, and I'll make finding those extras a higher priority. Thank you, Ami." Luna looked kind of proud, I think she was expecting dumb teens but is glad we are taking this threat seriously.

 _"Luna, which Senshi do we think it is? We need to give her her pen when we find her."_

Luna seemed to consider something, and then her expression lit up, like she came up with an idea, "Unfortunately, we won't know till we see her and feel her magic in person. But I just remembered a great solution for this, it was something I was going to teach you anyways but forgot. Do you remember when you asked about keeping the pens with you?"

Did I? Oh, wait, _"Yes! I was asking about what to do if I don't have my pen on me because pens are harder to keep on you at all times than a broach I can pin to my clothes. You said there was a simple solution but you were waiting for Ami before you told me so you wouldn't have to give the lesson twice."_

"Basically yes, that was it. Now I'm going to teach you two about your sub-pockets. This room is a subspace only reachable by magic. Sub-pockets work the same way but are a simpler goal. Its just a small subspace that you put your things in. When you need them, use your magic to reach in and pull it out. It takes less work to make and sustain one because you don't actually have to craft a complex interior like you do for a base like this. All you need is a space for your things, and when you want to grab something from it, just visualize pulling something out of a pocket or bag."

We spent the next half hour practicing that, Ami using her computer and I used my hair sticks. It was a lot harder to make the pocket than to take something out. But both weren't too hard. It was weird, but not too hard. Luna suggested we keep at least one object in it until it becomes easier to make a pocket. Apparently, it's supposed to be as easy as breathing for a magic user, but we were not there. I left my pen in it and put my sticks back in my hair.

 _"Ok, so how does this solve the getting the shrine Senshi her pen problem?"_

"If you had more experience, you could just take it from my pocket, but that requires trust and magic to work and while I trust you, your magic isn't at that level yet. Eventually you all will be able to share items from each other's sub-pockets but not anytime soon. Instead, my idea is to give both transformation sticks to Usagi. I can take them back from her if I need to, she has the best magical sensing out of the two of you, and as leader I know I can trust her. Agreed?"

"Of course!" Ami says, her immediate agreement along with Luna's trust and praise made me all emotional.

 _"Aww you guys! Gonna make me cry"_

We moved on to our next usual task, magic practice, which was basically us messing with our magic to see what happens. Ami is figuring out how to make her Mercury Mist really cold, maybe that'll turn into an ice attack, who knows. We finally set up some targets so that we weren't aiming at each other anymore. I was trying to improve my aim, throwing my tiara at those targets.

While we did this, we would ask questions, either to Luna or each other. We'd been asking a range of serious and random questions; from "Do the uniforms act like proper armor and help lower damage given to us" (Yes), to "How were there people on the gas giants" (Floating kingdoms apparently).

I have one that's been bugging me for a bit. _"You called us both lunarian, but you also called Ami a Mercurite, what gives?"_

Luna looked at us and sighed, "I forgot to explain, I'm sorry, it must have slipped my mind. Let's use an analogy. Everyone on this planet is 'human', but you also call each other things like 'Japanese' or 'American'. It's the same for Lunarians. The species started on the moon but as they grew their territory grew to cover the whole solar system. The people of each planet, while still being Lunarian, grew to call themselves separate names to indicate where they were born. As the colonies on the planets grew, they adapted in response to their planets' magic, creating certain traits that were more common from one planet to another."

She pointed at me, "Usagi is a Lunarian-lunarian, born on the moon. The people of the moon are known for their purity and beauty, and high proficiencies in light, healing, and illusion magic. This is the kingdom the Queen and Princess were from, the center of the whole empire, all of the Silver Millennium revolved around the moon."

She pointed at Ami, "Ami is a Mercurite-lunarian, born on Mercury. Her people are known for their intelligence, creating most magical technology the empire had, and their water and ice magic skills. Every planet had magic that it gifted to its Senshi, your species may already have magic, but the planet and its magic make you stronger. The royal family and Senshi are the only ones gifted the planet's blessing and extra magic, this is true for all the planets. Most Senshi were members of the royal family of their planet, and the Senshi served as protectors for the entire empire of the Silver Millennium. Is that enough of a history lesson for the day?"

That was a lot of info. I'm done with questions until my brain sorts through all of that.

We left, after reviewing the plan for tomorrow once more. In my bedroom, my mind began to wander. We're looking for the moon princess. Luna says she is the last Lunar royal and therefore can use the sealing magic. Senshi are usually royal.

No way, Luna wouldn't tell me to look for myself, I'm being silly. And she said usually royal, key word usually. So, I don't have to be a Lunar Royal. I'm not the moon princess. Right?


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry I haven't posted in a while! To make up for that, this is Rei's entire chapter, not broken in two like Ami's. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Rei/Sailor Mars

"Vocal Speech"

'Sign Language'

" _Sailor Moon speech_ "

White dress and a screamed name. En- I can't remember. The same dream, every night. It doesn't matter, I'm awake and have an important mission today.

Ami and I walked toward Hikawa Shrine together, after school ended. Naru asked if we wanted to go to the arcade, and we had to come up with believable excuses not to. I hate lying to her, but I also don't want her near whatever danger is around. The walk was tense, we knew we'd be gaining an ally, but we also knew our new enemy is strong and desperate, a bad combo.

I tried to break the tension a bit. 'Hey, I had a new idea about using the telepathic speech of my transformation on specific people. If I can get it to work, then it'll be like I can call you. Talk to you from far away and no one else would hear. It's not ready yet, but I thought it might be a good idea.'

Nope, still tense. Try again, this time make her talk, that might help. 'Want to bet on whether temple Senshi is Mars or Jupiter? Loser buys shakes at the Crown tomorrow.'

"But we can't know until we meet them, that's why you have the pens. You do have the pens, right?" Ami took my bait. I hate awkward silence. There is too much quiet in my life already, don't need quiet tense walks too.

'Of course, I do. And, yeah, that's the point of betting. We don't know, it's like flipping a coin. That's also why the prize is so cheap, because it's just a random bet that we have no impact on. I choose Mars. No reason, just gut feeling.'

"And this is a fun thing to do with friends?" she looked at me skeptically.

'Sorta. There are no real stakes on the bet which is why we can just freely guess without too much thought. It's fun in the same way gashapons are fun, even if you lose you still get something, and you didn't bet anything big in the first place.'

"Alright, I guess that makes sense. So, I have Jupiter then?"

'Yup! Hey, after we get shrine Senshi and beat the bus thing, we should all have a sleepover. If we wanted to do just Senshi so we can all bond, we could probably have it in the base if we need to. But having a slumber party without Naru is practically a crime. She's the queen of sleepovers.'

Ami smiled, "That sounds really fun."

A bus ride and some walking later, we stood at the steps before the shrine. It was beautiful, there were so many trees, I bet it will look amazing in spring.

I took a glance down the block to where the rumored "demon bus stop" was. While riding the bus here, Ami and I heard a lot of rumors about the youma activity. The six o'clock busses have been disappearing and there were false rumors about it being spirits, and something to do with the fact that the stop is at a five-way intersection. I didn't pay too much attention; I know the truth after all.

I could feel dark magic radiating from the bus stop from here. Luna is right, this is going to be hard.

The dark magic of the bus stop was juxtaposed by the warm magic of the shrine. The whole place had a slightly mystical feeling. Is it all because of the Senshi here, or is some of its natural magic coming from the planet?

Putting thoughts of the bus stop out of my mind for the moment, Ami and I began to walk up to the shrine. Each stair closer, the magic seemed to grow stronger. We also began to hear shouting.

"My daughter is missing, and you are telling me to calm down? How dare you? This happens in front of your temple, you caused this didn't you? Everyone knows you're a demonic freak! Give me my daughter back! She's just a child, bring her back!"

I rush up the last few steps to see a very angry lady yelling at the prettiest shrine maiden I've ever seen. If I could speak, I would have yelled at that rude woman, it's never alright to talk like that to someone, especially when they are innocent. But I couldn't yell, I just really, really, wanted to. And that's when the shrine maiden turned to look at me.

She has dark black hair that seemed to shimmer like raven's feathers. Her skin was pale and smooth, and her eyes were the prettiest shade of violet, I didn't think eyes could be that color. She had noble features, looking every bit like royalty. She was also 100% definitely the Senshi we were looking for.

When our eyes met, I felt a warm magic surround me. And for a moment, I saw a vision. A beautiful palace, flowers, fountains, five girls laughing together, dresses, and uniforms. It looked so familiar. When my eyes focused back on the girl, I saw a look of bewilderment on her face and I think she saw what I did.

As Ami made it up the last few steps to join me, the girl turned back to the yelling woman, "Excuse me, I am very sorry for your loss, but you are causing a scene and I have to ask you to leave. I'll be praying for your daughter, goodbye." And she walked away from the woman. She was headed toward us. She stopped in front of the two of us, "Come with me please, whatever is about to happen should be private."

We followed her through the temple and into a room that must have been her bedroom. We all sat down. She broke the silence.

"I know you, both of you, but I don't. I recognize you, and I know you recognized me, but this is our first meeting." She waited a moment, seeming to be giving us a chance to start talking, Ami looked too flustered to take it. "I'm psychic, I sometimes know what people are thinking and sometimes see small visions. I can feel people's auras and know a bad person when I see one. You two aren't bad but you are weird. You came here today looking for me, and when you did, it triggered a vision. It felt so familiar, and I feel like I'm supposed to know who you are."

'I saw it too. The vision.' She stared for a minute.

"I'm sorry, I don't know sign. I have no idea what you just said." I laughed soundlessly and thought, should I just use the sticks or have Ami translate? Someone could walk in… Hmn, better safe and all that.

Ami accepted the translator roll quickly; I think she was a bit shocked we were confronted like this.

'My name is Tsukino Usagi ("and mine is Mizuno Ami" she added while translating) and long story short, you recognize us because we are all reincarnations of space warriors from kingdom that existed a long, long time ago. We are magic, it's probably why you're psychic, and we are reawakening as Senshi to fight terrible evil that wants to kill us all. What's your name by the way? You haven't said it yet.'

I saw several emotions cross her face hope, fear, caution, before she glared at me. "This is all a joke isn't it. Is it that fun for you all? Let's all mock the demon girl! Won't that be fun?" She hissed at me, "I'm weird, not an idiot. And this isn't even funny!" Ami tried to deny her claims, but she just kept yelling. "I understand I freak people out, but that doesn't mean you can come to my home and mock me to my face! My name is Hino Rei and get the hell out of my house!"

While a small part of me was offended, the larger recognized that Rei was reacting to years of bullying, and I felt oddly protective of her. Like with Ami, I feel an immediate, deep connection with Rei and want to help her.

What did they do to her? Rei, kind warm Rei, one of my Senshi, has been hurt by humans so badly that she can't trust me! How dare they mock and hurt her? Rei is strong, she's been living with this magical ability most likely for a very long time that makes the humans ostracize her, and she still is kind to them! That woman who was yelling, Rei felt grief for her missing child. She opened herself up to us and thinks we are trying to hurt her. No, I'm going to fix this.

 _'MOON PRISM POWER MAKE UP!'_ As Sailor Moon, I could feel Rei's magic in more detail, and as I tried to figure out which of the pens she needed, something deep inside me said Mars and I'm going to go with that. I pulled the Mars Pen from the nowhere pocket and tossed it at her, she instinctually caught it. _"We aren't lying, this isn't a prank. Rei, you are special, but you already knew that. You are Sailor Mars (or maybe Jupiter)."_ I looked over at Ami for a second before turning back to Rei. I'd say this wasn't the plan, but I think you need an actual plan to say that. Our plan was go find Rei, and we did so now what? Going with my gut.

I take off my mask and cup her face in my hands, looking her in the eye, _"I know you've been alone for, probably, a very long time, but you aren't anymore. You are one of us and we won't abandon you. We love your magic! We have magic too! And I think that it's amazing, that you're amazing, and you don't have to hide who you are with us. We all have flaws; I can't talk, Ami is a socially awkward genius, Luna is a cat, and you are psychic. You aren't a freak. Or, if you are, we are too."_

I have no idea if that was actually an emotionally uplifting speech. But I hope it was.

"MARS POWER MAKE UP!" Whoa. Fire danced around her in a flash and Sailor Mars stood in front of me. She had a red skirt with purple bows, high heels, and a beautiful red jewel where her skirt connected with the leotard in the front. She had a mask similar to mine and Sailor V's, but instead of flaring out like feathers, the edges looked like flame. She got rid of it quickly, though so I didn't get a good look. Her already purple eyes seemed more vibrant and seemed to have a light in them, like they were burning. Her black hair shimmered with strands of purple and red. The red jewel on her tiara seemed to glow.

She looked at me and quickly grabbed my hands, "I've been dreaming about this moment for years, I thought it was crazy. I've had visions of Senshi and an impossible kingdom my whole life, and lately all my dreams seemed to be pointing toward this exact moment." She teared up, "I'm not crazy. It's real." She started laughing and hugged me, burying her head in my shoulder. Then her laughter turned to sobs, crying into my arms.

 _"Um, there, there?"_ I looked to Ami, panicking slightly, what do I do now? She looked more clueless than me, which makes sense when you think about this might be the first time that she's seen someone else cry in person. That still doesn't help me, so I try patting Rei on the back in a hopefully soothing way.

We sat and talked for a bit, Ami doing some wonderful explaining of what we are and what we do, Rei wanted to try an attack but the second she said 'Fire' we stopped her, afraid of burning the building down.

We talked about her psychic abilities. "So… you mentioned visions?" Ami asked.

"Well, yeah I sometimes get visions. Usually while meditating at the great fire, um, that's in the temple, or I'll see a dream that feels real multiple times and realize that's a vision too. But most of the time, I get flashes of information randomly, sometimes useful, sometimes not. And I'll just know things about people. They don't really like that." She was excited at first but slowed down to a sad, hesitant stop at the end. Rei looked down, not meeting our eyes.

 _"People have hurt you, but we won't. Right, Ami? I personally wouldn't mind you using any of your powers around me. The vision I saw when we met was very pleasant. Plus, the ability to look at someone and know if they are in a bad mood, and why, seems like a superpower, a really cool one. And I use magic to speak so it's not like I'm magic free over here. You are psychic and awesome. And if someone says otherwise, I'll kick their butt!"_

The tension sort of faded after that, comfortable getting to know each other conversation started. It felt nice, like the feeling of regaining something I didn't know I lost.

All of a sudden, a loud noise came from my bag.

 _"Oh crap, I forgot about that! I've been missing too many family dinners because of training and mom said I have to be home for dinner today or else and I really don't want to find out what that is. I'm so sorry but I have to go! That alarm was my warning that I need to go NOW if I want to make it in time. I'm sorry! Ami, if you can stay, can you answer some more of Rei's questions? I'll see you both tomorrow and then we can start dealing with the bus thing! So sorry, bye!"_

I grabbed my bag and ran, de-transforming as I left the building and running down to the bus stop. Wait, isn't this the murder bus stop? No, that's at six, its only five, I'm fine, I think.

As I rested under the bus stop sign, Luna jumped on my head and landed in front of me, scaring the crap out of me.

She jumped back up onto my shoulder as the bus arrived. I boarded and headed to the back, it seemed there were a few empty rows back there that meant I might be able to have a quiet conversation with Luna. Sitting down and putting the sticks in, I focused on the mini heart attack giver.

 _"What the hell? I'm not just getting you a collar; I'm getting you a bell because that was way too startling. Ami and I found her by the way, it's Mars. And she is like totally psychic, also she said she's been dreaming of Senshi for, like, ever. Why?"_

"Was she a shrine maiden?" I nod. "Then it's possible the intense meditation and prayer might have partially awoken some of her magic. Focusing that strongly on her inner psyche, it's not impossible. But I don't know for sure."

"I've been investigating the busses all day and it's safe to say that a general is definitely involved with this plot. Ideally, we'd want to stop this as soon as possible, but I think you will have to wait for tomorrow if only so that the three of you can be well prepared for your hardest fight. If the three of you fight today, I'm afraid one of you will get hurt."

 _"Do you think the busnapped people are still alive?"_ If whoever was on today's bus died because I didn't want to get hurt or had to go home, I don't think I could forgive myself. Mom can ground me, if someone is gonna die, that's more important.

"I don't know. I hope they are, but we won't really-!" she stopped suddenly, eyes bulging.

 _"Luna, what's wrong?"_

"Yeah Luna, what's wrong?" a slightly familiar voice said. I turned around in horror to see that we were not as alone as we thought we were, here in the back of the bus. It was that man, the one I accidentally threw my test at and made fun of me in sign. He was in a school uniform and he was sitting right next to me.

 _"Well, fuck."_

He grinned. "Don't stop on my account, seems like you were having an important conversation. And that's pretty impressive considering neither of you should be able to talk." Sassy. Cute, but sassy. He looked delighted at the situation, as if spotting a magical girl and her talking cat was normal and he didn't need to be freaking out now. No, instead I'm freaking out.

 _"If I say you're dreaming right now?"_ Slight bit of hope but doubtful.

"I'd laugh and say try again, bun head." Huh, from that angle he kinda looks like Tuxedo Mask. Wait, no, bad thoughts, not the time for that. Then again… he was wearing a tux when we first met. A tuxedo, in the middle of the day, just hanging out in front of the shop where the youma was… I hope my disguise magic is better than his.

 _"Bun head,"_ I roll my eyes, _"Not very original and I do have a name you know."_

"Well what is it? If you don't tell me I'll just have to keep calling you bun head, or how do you feel about Buns?" A cute arrogant smirk transformed into a teasing smile. Wait, cute? Really, brain, cut it out.

 _"Usagi. Tsukino Usagi."_

"Usagi? Ha, I might as well call you Buns, little bunny. Or maybe Usako." I twitch. Pet names? Really? We've basically just met and he's, what, flirting? Cute, arrogant, jerk.

 _"And who the hell are you? Thinking that I'll just accept this harassment."_

He broke out into a full grin and extended his hand for a handshake. "Chiba Mamoru, high schooler, a dashing hero to any moon related damsels in distress." He winked. Moon wha? Is that him admitting to being Tuxedo Mask or trying to accuse me of being Sailor Moon (I mean, I am, but he shouldn't know that.)

I pointedly did not shake his hand, and narrowed my eyes, _"I have no idea what you are talking about."_

His eyebrows rose and he chuckled, "So you're _not_ using magic to talk right now? Also has anyone ever told you that you have a striking resemblance to our new defender of love and justice?"

The bus stopped and I stood up. _"This conversation NEVER HAPPENED. Got it?"_ And I left.

It wasn't my stop, but I didn't care, that was a bad conversation. What happens now? I guess I have to keep an eye on him. He is Tuxedo Mask though, so I guess it's fine? Probably? If he outs me, I'm gonna out him so that sorta balances things out a bit.

I'm going to have to confront him again at some point but for now I just want to go home. Mom is really happy to see me at dinner; she asks why I've been spending so much time out lately and I give a partial truth. I've made some new friends that I love spending time with, one of which is a genius who is helping me study. That seems to satisfy her for now, but I think she wants to meet my new friends. Well, if things go according, then we can have Ami's first sleepover at my house.

I try not to think about the people who were kidnapped today. I know Luna is right and that the generals are tough enemies, but I still feel guilt. But she's right, Rei needs more than an hour to prepare to fight a big bad, and it's not like Ami and I are ready either.

Tomorrow, we'll stop this tomorrow.

A castle. Screaming. Fighting. Blood. A man. Familiar face. White dress. Senshi. Love. A sword. Endymion.

Another day, another dream. I think I heard a full name this time but as I try and recall specifics, they fade and blur. I'm probably going to have to deal with this dream thing at some point, but right now I have school so… ignoring it.

In the classroom, I turn to Ami, 'So anything important happen after I left?'

"Not too much, she asked questions of course, but so far all things I can answer. The Mercury computer helped, anything we didn't know we could look up. I hope Luna does find more of them; it really isn't fair that I get all this knowledge to myself. Speaking of, what did Luna say?"

'It's definitely a General. Rei's boosted magic is prob because of her duties as priestess at her temple. She also wants us to be prepared for a hard fight.' Not going to mention that we accidentally got caught talking. When I said 'this never happened' yesterday, Luna took it to heart. She has pointedly not talked about it. She asked questions about Rei, and added some theories, but did not talk about Chiba Mamoru.

After school, Ami and I walked in front of Naru for a minute. 'You told Rei how to get to the Crown, right?'

'Of course,' Ami signed back, simultaneously asking Naru a question. Master of espionage. "Naru, have you heard any gossip lately? Oh, but not the demon bus, we already heard about that enough and it seems to all be rumors anyway."

"Well I heard about this upcoming honest to goodness masquerade ball in a few weeks that's being hosted by a REAL Princess!"

I turned to look at her, 'Really?'

"Yes! And apparently, she's going to show off a mystery treasure that is incredibly rare and worth millions! Oh, and her country is famous for its jewel mines, they have so many rare crystals! My mom got a ticket to go to the ball, you know, cause it's such a big country to the jewelry industry. And my mom says she'd bet anything the rare treasure is some sort of new, never before seen gem. Oh, and I'm gonna be her plus one!" She was grinning and squealing by the end and I can't blame her, that sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I bet she's been waiting to tell us all day. She had that look, the 'hurry up and ask me something so I can say what I want' look.

'That sounds so nice, a real ball with a princess and everything. I'm jealous, you should give me your ticket.' I smile at the end.

"What? No way!"

'But don't you think your poor, disabled, best friend should be able to go?' I gave her my sarcastic puppy eyes, a look I have worked hard on over the years. She laughed at me.

"Well when you put it like that," she rolled her eyes and paused. "Still a nope! My poor, disabled, best friend doesn't need pity presents." We both laughed, even if my laughs were silent. "Maybe that'll work on a security guard though, worth a shot."

I snorted, it was an ugly noise, my mangled vocal cords hating the action. Honestly, my laugh isn't exactly silent, it just is warped to the point that most people think I'm dying when they hear the noise coming from my throat. So, I've tried very hard over the years to internalize any laughter to spare myself and those around me the bad noises my vocal cords make, but every now and then something slips through. Like this snort. Naru knows to ignore them but Ami…

I look at her. "How much noise can you make? Have you tried vocal therapy? Does it hurt when you use your vocal cords?" Oh, Ami. She was in curious genius mode. Her pursuit for knowledge ignores all social cues. But she can't really help that.

'Basically, just that much, no, yes.' I answered. 'Also, most people would think that was rude, for future reference.' Her eyes widened and she apologized immediately. I assured her it was fine. We all kept walking, the conversation dying out a bit.

Naru, trying to restart this talk, moved to another rumor. "Ok, you said you don't want to hear about the Demon Bus because you already know the whole story, but I have new info on it. And it's not just a rumor, someone, I don't name my anonymous sources, saw it happen! Yesterday, when the bus came, people were spotted dropping their things and walking into the bus, like they were possessed or something! Dropped groceries, purses, briefcases, backpacks, and they all just walked on. Some people tried to get their attention but apparently, they were just ignored. Now I personally didn't see it, but I trust my source, you both know I hate spreading lies. So, you can trust that this is some true gossip here."

Ami and I just blinked at her, stunned. What does it mean when an already bold obvious plan gets even more bold and obvious? It's a trap, right? But if those people are alive, we have to go. Heck, we have to go so that it stops! But…

"Wow," Ami said. I nodded agreeing. "that's kind of, terrifying." I nod again.

Naru, not noticing the real fear and panic at having to deal with this on our faces, continued, "This sounds like one of those monster things that Sailor Moon will stop, so don't be too scared, it'll probably all be over in a few days. Just don't get on the bus." She shrugged.

I glanced at Ami and she seemed to get it. "Sailor Moon?"

Naru nodded, "Yeah, She's the new Sailor V. She has already stopped two weird monster things; I don't see why she wouldn't stop this one." She looked at our stunned faces and continued, "Remember, she killed the monster that attacked me and my shop? And remember that cram school that shut down a week ago? Well, some people were investigating the school and found evidence that a monster had been there, also a woman was tied up in the basement." Oh my god I'm so glad Ami called the police after our fight. We did it hoping that the school would get closed, and it did, but god, we would have missed that woman completely! "She said a monster copied her face, like the one who pretended to be my mom! Also, the classroom the fight happened in had a security camera. It didn't catch much; the new Sailor made some fog or smoke or something that blocked the cameras. Also, there's another new one! Don't know her name yet."

We gaped in silent horror for a few moments.

'HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THESE THINGS?' I didn't know our second youma kill got discovered. What else does she know? Does she know we are them? WHO ARE HER SOURCES?

She giggled, "Usagi, if I tell you all my secrets, then that ruins the fun! Let's just say my gossip gathering source group is very varied."

I don't know what to say to that, and I feel vaguely threatened, or maybe intimidated, and a bit scared. Conversation over. No more questions from me! And by the look on Ami's face, none from her either!

"Ami! Usagi!" Looking up, the familiar figure of Rei greeted us from outside of the Crown. She looked a bit stressed. Honestly, me too, but that's partially (mostly) Naru's fault. Where did she hear that stuff? Luna was sitting by her feet, we did warn Rei about our talking space cat, so hopefully she knows why she suddenly has a furry companion. Speaking of, I haven't seen Luna since this morning, has she been with Rei all day?

I waved at Rei, walking ahead to grab Luna. 'Hi Rei, I see you've met my cat, I hope she wasn't bothering you.' Ami translated that while I scooped Luna into my arms. Luna gave me a look but stopped when I started scratching her chin. Good to know space cats like petting too. In the most cat like action I've seen from her yet, as if sensing my feeling of victory for petting her, she batted my hand away and jumped out of my arms and over to Ami. Or maybe she just knows I need my arms to communicate and decided to make that easier. Or both, cats are mysterious.

"I didn't mind, Luna seems… wise. She was a nice companion while I waited here." Rei smiled at us. Ok, wise definitely means talking, you'd think Luna would be more cautious about that after getting caught literally yesterday. Also, how long has she been waiting here? I hope we haven't kept her waiting too long. Rei looked at Naru with an air of contemplation, "We haven't met yet, my name is Hino Rei. Your aura is strange, I've never seen someone with such conflicting good and bad luck. Bad things happen, but you always come out alright. Am I right?"

Naru just looked stunned. I would too if a beautiful woman came over to me and started talking about auras. She looked met Ami and my eyes, and after confirmation that we did indeed know this woman, she responded, "Uhhh… Hi, Osaka Naru here. And yeah, I guess I've been having some bad luck lately, two monster attacks in a row, but I'm fine so yeah? Usagi and I like to say that as long as you didn't die, it could have been worse. Sailor Moon saved me and I'm gonna say that's good luck. I'm sorry, you told me your name but who are you?"

Well when you put it like that, dang Rei, you really are a great psychic. She flashed a smile at me, like she heard my thinking, but it must have been a coincidence.

'Naru this is Rei, we met her yesterday. She's really cool and we wanted to hang out more, so we invited her here today. Also, she can't sign so one of you has to translate to her.' I smiled at Naru.

She raised a brow, "Oh, yesterday, when you were doing that important thing? The reason you couldn't hang out? What exactly were you doing? I can't quite remember." Oh boy. What excuse did I use? What lie can I say that explains meeting Rei and ditching Naru? I looked over at Ami who, by the look on her face, was going through the same thought process I was.

Ami tried answering, "Well, you see, Rei is a Shrine Maiden we met. We went to her shrine to…" Oh no, the poor girl can't lie. Her panicked eyes met mine and I took over. Best lies are based in truth.

'We were curious about the Demon bus, and Rei's temple is right next to the bus stop. We met her there. We didn't tell you because you've already been in two attacks, going to where the next one is seemed like tempting fate. Rei turned out to be awesome so I'm sorry that you didn't get to meet her with us, but I really don't want you near this whole Demon Bus thing.' That was basically the truth so she should be fine with that. The only thing I didn't mention was the Senshi.

Naru leaned close to me, staring into my eyes. Her narrowed eyes trying to detect any lie. She finally pulled away with a scowl, "I'm a big girl, Usagi, you don't need to 'protect me'. And even if you did, don't lie. If you say you don't want me on that bus, I'll listen, but don't lie about being busy and go looking for monsters on your own. We're best friends, no secrets."

Ouch, god, ow. I really want to tell her everything and not lie at all, but I can't. But it still hurts to lie. 'Of course! Now let's grab a booth, Ami owes me a milkshake.'

We sat down in that booth that was right next to the Sailor V game, thanks Luna, she gave us the booth, might as well use it.

'So, Rei, what school do you go to? I don't recognize the uniform.' Rei frowned and her nose scrunched up.

"Can we not talk about my school? I hate it there."

"Really?" Naru asked, "because I recognize the uniform, TA Academy, right? I heard its great there, a lot of politicians and celebs send their kids there." She paused and looked at Rei, silently asking if she was either of those things. Rei just rolled her eyes and scowled, don't know if that's a yes or no.

"Yeah, and I'm the social pariah of the school. They call me a witch and make sure every day that I know how much they don't want me there."

Well that is not ok. I hate bullies, and I really hate bullies who pick on my friends. It sounds like Rei has a whole school full of bullies, we're going to have to change that.

Naru, sharing my hatred of bullies, gets a serious look on her face as she asks for more details. "Why? I know we just met, but there is no way you deserve that. Right?" she glanced at me and I nodded enthusiastically.

Rei glances at the three of us a bit uncomfortably, seeming to be judging if she wanted to share her story or not. She sighed and looked at me, and for a second, I felt like I knew what she was feeling. She wasn't sure about Naru. She has seen that Ami and I are magic and would not make fun of her over something probably slightly magic. But she doesn't know if Naru will bully her. It's ok, trust us. She nods at me and speaks.

"I've always been somewhat psychic. It's not a consistent thing, sometimes I can get an overall image of what a person is thinking or feeling. Sometimes I have dreams that come true. Sometimes I can tell that the reason my classmate is sad is because her grandmother died, and when I gave her my condolences, she was freaked out and accused me of cursing her grandmother to death. She apparently hadn't told anyone yet. When I was an elementary student, I hadn't realized how weird I was yet, and freaked out all my classmates. Because the private school system is so small, most of my classmates are the same kids from back then, and they tell any new kid to avoid me." She paused, twisting a lock of her hair in her fingers in most likely a nervous tick, "I know I shouldn't care what they think, but it's so lonely. My powers are a gift from the gods, I'm a shrine maiden who prays to the gods of my temple daily, they blessed me and I'm lucky they did. But I wish other people would see it that way too. That they didn't call me a demon girl, witch, freak, satanic… I don't want to be ashamed of being me, but they make it very hard."

We all sat there a moment until I hugged her tightly. Didn't matter that I had to launch myself across the table to do it. Rei doesn't know sign so I'm just going to have to trust that if I hug tightly enough, she will understand. She is not a freak. Her classmates are horrible. Her magic is beautiful and it's amazing that she is so gifted. She is a Senshi and we will never treat her like that. If she wants, she'll never be lonely again.

She teared up and hugged back. "Thank you," she whispered to me.

"I've known you for, like, five minutes, and I can tell that you are a sweet awesome person, not a demon, so your school can piss off." Naru sounds pissed. Good, those kids suck and deserve to be angry at. I moved to the other side of the booth, putting Rei in a Senshi Sandwich, squished between me and Ami. I was still hugging her.

"The teachers just let them bully you?" Ami sounded horrified. Rightfully, this is the sort of thing teachers should be stopping, why have they let it go on so long?

"The teachers don't like me either, so they pretend not to notice any bullying."

A new wave of horror flowed over me. 'Is that even legal?' Naru translated for me, sounding just as horrified as I felt.

Rei just sort of shrugged, defeated.

'Why do you still go to that school?' Naru translated.

She shrugged again, "My father chose it." She looked bitter.

'Have you told him what's happening?' Ami translated.

Rei looked down, "I only see him on my birthday most years, and I don't really like talking to him."

That's a whole other story of awful that we can deal with some other time, for now, let's focus on the school problem.

'Is he your primary guardian?' Ami's eyes widened as she seemed to see where I was going with this.

"No, I live with my grandfather at the shrine." Rei looked confused at that question, but her answer was exactly what I was looking for.

I stood up. 'Perfect!' I smiled, 'Let's go tell him you are switching schools.' And I started walking toward the door. I heard a "Wait, what?" and then heard them rushing to catch up with me.

Motoki's little sister, Unazuki, walked toward us holding four menus, "Hey, sorry for the wait. Oh, wait, are you leaving already?" I smiled, a bit embarrassed, and mouthed the word sorry at her.

"Sorry, Una! Emergency, gotta run, sorry!" Naru yelled as we pass.

As we leave the building, Ami stops me for a moment. "Are we really doing this?"

'We had to go to the shrine anyways,' I looked to make sure Naru doesn't see, 'We are stopping that bus today.'

She just sighed and let me walk to the bus stop. Luna joined us. Rei spent the bus ride trying, in vain, to get me to see that "It's not that bad, well it is, but you don't have to go this far. I wasn't asking for pity or anything." But I am not listening to that. This isn't pity, this is a friend who is worried and wants to help. A team leader making sure her Senshi are safe. This is necessary.

She paused, looking slightly surprised. And then she didn't argue anymore. Odd. But what isn't anymore. Maybe she could tell how genuine I feel, or that I am doing this sooner or later so let's just do it now. I'm not going to forget about this, even if we didn't do this now, I wouldn't just forget, this wouldn't get swept under the metaphorical rug.

Naru started asking Rei more questions about her life, like, "What's it like living in a temple?" But I was busy planning a convincing argument about why Rei suddenly needs to switch schools, and quickly if possible. I'll need a translator. Naru, she's hates bullies as much as I do and will be very passionate and hopefully that passion will help.

When we got to the temple it seems that wasn't necessary.

Rei was happy, a little embarrassed, but very happy. She has friends, great friends that are willing to go to extremes for her. She is also a Senshi now. Her magic is there so she can help save the world and there are at least four other girls who will know about and have magic. Meeting Ami and Usagi was easily one of the best things to happen to her. She has been given a purpose and can already feel a change in her magic since she transformed yesterday. She was getting much clearer readings of people and, strangely, for Usagi, she has been picking up whole sentences occasionally.

When her grandfather approached them, Rei felt joy from him. He was happy that she was finally bringing friends home. He knew she was being bullied, but it was the school her father wanted, and he didn't have any reason to believe another school would be much better.

Rei decided to speak first, getting straight to the point, "Grandpa, I want to switch schools."

"Okay"

"Wait, what?"

Her grandfather looked at her with a mix of amusement and seriousness. "I know that your current school isn't a good fit. I told your father it wasn't the right school for you, but he asked which one would be better. What was stopping the new school from treating you like the last? I couldn't guarantee a new school would actually be better until now. Rei, you had a fire in your eyes that I rarely see. You know what you want and will argue till you get it. And right now, you want to be with these girls. I know you wouldn't make a decision like this lightly, if you want to go with them, you trust them. And I can see that they are determined to help you. Why would I want to stop that? Rei I'm happy you finally found great friends like these."

And with that, it was done. Rei was going to switch schools. Our little 'side-quest' was over. I am glad, but I wasn't expecting it to be that easy. I guess her grandpa also wanted to transfer her but needed an excuse. But, sorry Rei, Rei's dad is a horrible person. He was told his daughter was bullied and didn't help her. In fact, he stopped her grandpa from helping her. "New school treating you like the last" well yeah, that could have happened, but maybe it wouldn't have and the fact he didn't even try is horrible. At least her grandpa is looking out for her. And now Rei has us, and I guess that's what matters the most.

But if I ever meet her dad, I think I might slap him.

Rei's head swiveled towards me, her eyes wide and shocked. Hmm. Can you hear me? Her head tilted, confused as I stared at her. Maybe not. I looked away.

I guess now we should focus on the dangerous enemy we are about to fight, who may or may not be way stronger than us and could possibly kick our butts. Fun.

We ended up in Rei's room a few minutes later. Naru, Ami, and Rei were talking but I just wasn't paying attention. I was thinking about the general. About whether I felt confident we could win. If Ami or Rei got hurt, or worse, when I could have had us train for another day… I don't know. I don't want to let another bus of people be taken but as their leader I have to protect them. But I don't think it'll come to that. Luna would have said something if she thought I was making a mistake.

So, this fight will be harder. So what? The other two were one hit kills so it's kinda obvious that the enemies had to get stronger. It's not like they could get any weaker. This will be fine; I need to relax.

Time passed as we all hung out in Rei's room. The peacefulness was broken, though, by a high pitched ringing noise. I immediately covered my ears, bothered by the painful tone, and saw Ami and Rei doing the same. Naru, however, stopped moving. A dazed look crossing her face as she sat in front of me. And then she slowly stood. Panic filled me as she started walking toward the door. I looked over at Ami and Rei, but they were still sitting plugging their ears like me. What is happening?

Naru left the room, slowly walking away, and I stood to follow her, my hands still on my ears. Ami and Rei were behind me. The noise wasn't stopping, its loud tone ringing and echoing. I suddenly realized that the sound was magical, that it felt like the dark magic that the enemy uses, I just didn't recognize it immediately due to how distracting the noise was.

It was worse outside. Joining the, somehow even louder, noise was a voice. A deep male voice shouting, "All aboard the bus! Everyone, it's time! Sacrifice yourself to the Dark Kingdom, just climb aboard the bus."

Well, shit. I transform then turn to the hypnotized Naru, dragging her away and back inside. Rope, I need rope. As I thought that, the bow on my back started to glow. I grabbed it and it unfurled, no longer on my back, I am left with a large ribbon in my hands. I test the fabric; it seems sturdy so I guess it will do. I tie Naru to the bedframe and run back outside.

I see Rei finish shutting her hypnotized grandpa in another room before running back towards us. Good to know I wasn't the only one with that idea. This fight is gonna be hard enough without having to worry about mind controlled loved ones getting hurt.

 _"So, scale of 1 to 10, 10 being certain doom, how bad do you think this is?"_ They both turned and grimaced as we ran down the many steps separating the temple from the street. Every step the shouting and the mind control noise just get louder. I'm glad it doesn't seem to work on us, probably some Senshi magic, otherwise the battle would already be over, and we'd have lost.

"Well, it's not a 1." Mars said. "It's probably not a great sign that he feels confident enough to drop the act completely and just start spiriting people away."

 _"Maybe it's overconfidence. He hasn't had any interference for days, why be careful now? It's not like he knows that anything is different today."_ I can hope. Overconfident, it can happen.

"Or his goal was to lure us out and defeat us and since we didn't show up yet, he felt he had to kick it up to the next level."

As we reached the last steps and were about to walk onto the street, I stopped us. _"Wait, final prep. Deep breathes, we can do this, and Mercury any last second intel?"_

She changed between a few screens of info on her visor before answering. "Well, you probably already guessed that the noise we are hearing is hypnotic. We seem to be safe from its effects, the Senshi powers seem to have a resistance to that sort of thing. The range is several blocks at least with the effects lessening the farther out it spreads. There is a large amount of magic that I believe is a portal, where it leads is uncertain, but it's a safe bet to say it most likely leads to their base. The general will probably use it as an escape route, and don't follow him, none of us know how to open a portal back if this one closes and you're on the wrong side. No chasing." She looked at us sternly, making sure we agreed.

 _"Okay. First thing, we should break the mind control spell. I have a plan for that, I need you two to sneak up on him while I distract him. When I give the signal, attack."_ They nodded and disappeared, moving to get behind the general.

I stepped onto the street and ran toward the bus stop. As I got my first look at the general, I was hit with a feeling of familiarity. His uniform, his short blonde hair, his eyes, his voice, they all seemed familiar. Like I already knew him. I know his name already, it's on the tip of my tongue, I just can't quite remember. I guess I should recognize him, seeing as he was probably an important enemy in the past too. This probably isn't our first fight, just our first fight since I was reborn or whatever. Weird.

Whatever, I can think about that later, right now I have to fight. I stop and access. He hasn't noticed me yet, he's too busy herding hypnotized people into the bus. And honestly, at this point, I'm surprised there is still a bus seeing as he could just order people to walk through the portal. Whatever don't question the crazy evil guy.

The portal was huge, basically a wall of magic in front of the bus. It oozed the horrible magic that the Dark Kingdom uses. Yeah, I don't want to go through it, don't worry Mercury.

I kept looking until I found it, the mind control spell. There was a dark orb hovering by the general, emitting the high pitched tone that still hurt my ears, even if it didn't enslave my brain. I had a plan to stop it. It's using sonic magic to control people, and I can use my bun gems to make a sonic/psychic attack. If I make a really loud noise in everyone's heads, so loud that it drowns out the mind control, maybe it won't work on them anymore. Even if it doesn't work, it'll probably get the general's attention away from the civilians, so that won't be a total loss.

I screamed. I screamed a lot. Mentally, making the loudest psychic scream I could. Physically, using my broken vocal cords to make the worst noises possible and having them amplified. These screams overlapped in the worst ways, jagged, mind numbing noises echoing off each other and amplifying through impossible levels in my head and every head around me. The psychic aspect of it making it impossible to escape from, no plugging your ears when the sound is coming from in your head.

The generals head immediately snapped towards me, a furious look on his face, but his face scrunched up in pain as the screams hit him. He, and everyone else, covered his ears desperately trying to stop the sound. Civilians were starting to fall over; I think they were passing out.

The ball of magic didn't disappeared, but I stopped. I don't think that was working, plan B time. _"NOW!"_

A mist covered the street, completely blocking vision, good thing our masks can see through it. The general doesn't seem to be able to, that's good. He's just looking around a lot and, oh, that's a ball of fire in his hands. Move, he might remember where I was before the mist came but if I move, I'm safe. Yup, the spot I was standing in got blasted, ok let's just keep moving.

I saw Mars run past me toward him. She tried to punch him, but he dodged at the last second. While he was still close to her, she screamed, "Fire Soul!" And fire shot from her fingers wrapping around them both, only to disappear as he jumped back.

The orb flickered and faded away as he did, I guess he can't fight and power a mind control spell at the same time. We got his attention. Yay?

"Sailor Senshi! I am Jadeite, one of the four Generals of the Dark Kingdom. Bow before me and perhaps the image of you begging at my feet will compel me to grant you mercy."

Umm. _"Excuse me?! Screw you, I'm Sailor Moon and in the name of the moon, why don't you beg for mercy you creep!"_ A fireball shot past my head as I dodged, right, don't let him know where you are.

"Miss Moon, I don't think you should talk like that when you are clearly so weak. Why else would you wait so long to fight me? I was disappointed Sailor Moon, you fought my youma immediately, but you avoided me for days. And now that you're here you're using such underhanded methods! Screaming isn't the attack of the strong, my dear." He gave a very patronizing look in my general direction.

Something about the informal way he spoke to me really bothered me, but I tried to ignore him. Jadeite is trying to bother me, to get a reaction. I shouldn't give him one.

"And attempting to blind me? Mercury, I know you can do better than that." The air quickly got hotter; my eyes widen.

 _"MERCURY, GET RID OF THE MIST!"_ I barely had time to shout that before the mist around me painfully transformed into steam. He boiled the water in the air. The boiling mist burned as it evaporated into steam.

Jadeite grinned viciously at the three of us, now able to see us clearly. "Good instincts Miss Moon, just a bit too slow to actually help you. Really Miss Mars here is the only one of you to be of any real worth as an opponent. She attacked headfirst, instead of resorting to your cowardly antics." He stopped and looked at Mars. Jadeite smirked and moved faster than I could track with my eyes, reappearing way too close to Mars. He grabbed her wrist, "Your end doesn't have to be as harsh as theirs, my dear. If you give yourself to me and are unable to use your moon-witch magics, maybe. If you show our queen how sorry you are, you could become my servant. Wouldn't that be nice?"

 _"Get away from her!"_ My tiara raced toward him, slicing his arm, forcing him away. Jadeite looked murderous. I was suddenly surrounded by fire, I wasn't going to dodge in time, I can't move fast enough.

Suddenly I feel myself being lifted, pulled against someone else's chest as they jump to safety. I turn my head and see Tuxedo Mask. My face heats up. He sets me down and whispers, "I told you I was a dashing hero."

Ha, so he is Mamoru. I guess he doesn't care about secret identities, or he realizes there's no point when we both were 90% sure about each other's identities. _"Hero, maybe. I wouldn't say dashing, though."_ I smirk at him.

He smiles and feigns a blow, taking a step back, "Ah, Sailor Moon, you wound me. Even so, I shall continue to stand by your side in battle. An ever-present protector waiting to sweep you off your feet!"

 _"Oh my god, you're so cheesy!"_ I was laughing. I could hardly believe this was the same guy I hit with my test paper. He actually is a bit charming when he tries.

A fireball shot between us and I returned my attention to the fight. My tiara was at Jadeite's feet. Sailor Mars was still near him, but not as uncomfortably close as before, and Mercury was trying to put herself between them. I think I have a plan.

 _"Moon Tiara TRAP!"_ My tiara glowed, lifting off the ground from near Jadeite's feet and wrapping itself around his torso, trapping his arms to his sides. I looked at Mercury and Mars, _"Throw everything you have at him!"_

"Aqua Mist!"

"Fire Soul!"

Their simultaneous attack seemed to combine into freezing fire. The icy flames covered Jadeite causing him to scream. I winced; I am not really the 'enjoy the pain of the enemy' type but seeing as he is trying to kill us this is necessary.

He teleported and reappeared next to the portal. He was covered in ice and burns. He was also holding my tiara. He crushed it and any magical connection I felt with it broke. Oh no.

He shouted at us, "Just because you stopped me here doesn't change the fact that everyone else who got on that bus died. This plan may be over but there will always be another. Don't think you won. At the end of the day this was truly a victory for the Dark Kingdom." And he disappeared into the portal.

What? What do _es he mean they died? No. No! He was lying, he had to be. There's no way…"_ Tears blurred my vision, but I could still make out Luna in front of me.

 _"I failed, Luna. I was supposed to protect them, to save them, and I FAILED! He was kidnapping people for days and he killed them. I'm supposed to be saving people, but I couldn't even beat one guy with a bus. This is all my fault. I should have been better. I can't save anyone."_

"You saved me." I looked up. Naru was standing in front of the crowd of civilians from the bus. She was holding the ribbon that I used to restrain her. The civilians had gathered a good distance away from the fight after the mind control ended and many stayed to watch the fight, some were even recording it on their phones. Naru was walking toward me. "You have saved me twice now. This is your ribbon, right? You kept me from the bus. You saved everyone here. You saved me when I thought that monster who stole my mom's face was gonna kill me. You aren't a failure, and this isn't your fault." She handed me my ribbon. "The only one at fault was that man. Don't blame yourself for his crimes. As far as I'm concerned, you are a hero. Thank you, Sailor Moon"

A few people shouted agreements or also said thanks. I felt a bit better, it still was a huge blow, but I hadn't completely lost hope.

"We should go," Luna whispered to me. "The longer we stay, the more likely someone will ask something of you that you cannot give."

It didn't take long to get to the base. Before he parted ways with us, I asked Tuxedo Mask if he wanted to come with us. He said maybe next time. I feel like I should feel more worried about him, but I just don't. So, he knows my identity, I know his. I can tell he's not evil and he's actively not trying to kill me, he's helping, so even though he's not a Senshi I kind of trust him.

We were all sitting in the meeting room, completely out of energy and rather depressed about how our fight with Jadeite went. Except, Luna had some good news for us.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there during the fight. When I saw the portal, I knew I had to take the risk of going through it just to find out where the Dark Kingdom base is. I found it, and I found some of the kidnapped victims. Jadeite lied to you, not all of them had been killed yet. Yes, some had died, but there were still people there when I got there. I brought them back while you all fought. It took a while, I had to take them only one at a time to escape notice. By the time I got them all to the hospital and came back, Jadeite was retreating."

The amount of relief I felt hearing this was immense, not everyone had died, the people who were kidnapped yesterday lived. My decision to wait a day didn't kill them. And we didn't really know about it before that. Does that mean it really wasn't my fault? I'll probably always feel guilty for it. But I know for a fact that this could have been worse, it almost was worse.

"You are all injured, you should stay the night here. We have healing magics that will fix you but most of them work better at night."

 _"Well, I guess it's time for a sleepover."_

* * *

 **I hope you liked it, it took me forever to write. Remember that this is taking elements from both the manga, 90's anime, Crystal, and my own stuff. For the bow being able to come off and stuff I was inspired by an old fic i read where they said every part of a senshi uniform should have a purpose. For the whole burning hot mist stuff, if you heat water enough, it'll burn you just as bad as fire. and if its in the air surrounding you? not good. My dad's a fire fighter and I've been told, despite what movies and tv say, if you are in a burning building DON'T cover yourself in a wet blanket. its REALLY bad.**

 **But I thought it would be a creative combo for Ami and Rei (even if it was used against them the first time)**


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